The Impact of National Culture on How Innovation Is Facilitated: A Comparative Study of Innovation-Enhancing Management Practices in Chinese and Finnish Companies

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master_Autio_Ilari_2019.pdf (1.23 MB)

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School of Business | Master's thesis
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Date

2019

Department

Johtamisen laitos

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Mcode

Degree programme

Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management

Language

en

Pages

88 + 19

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Abstract

The purpose for this thesis is to try to understand main differences in innovation manage-ment practices that emerge in different cultural context, namely China and Finland. The study creates a framework of innovation-enhancing management practices based on the literature on innovation, entrepreneurship, and human resource management and subse-quently aims to combine this knowledge with the cultural dimensions of Hofstede (1980; 1984) and business system theory by Whitley (2000) to explain the differences of how this process works in different countries. Innovation-enhancing management practices focus particularly on empowerment-enhancing HRM practices and knowledge management practices. I conducted a semi-structured interview study with three companies in China and three companies in Finland. The methodology was an application of a grounded theory building through case studies in order to uncover the differences in management practices in Chinese and Finnish companies. Overall, I identified 67 different management practices, out of which 33 practices were considered to be innovation-enhancing management practices. These were further divided under five innovation-enhancing management practice groups: promotion of learning, training, efficient procedures, empowering people and teamwork. The research suggests that Chinese and Finnish companies utilize different management practices to facilitate innovation. While the companies used practices in all of the management practice groups, the individual practices under each group, which were important, were rather different. However, similar practices were in customer collaboration and utilization of multiple different sources for acquiring new knowledge. Moreover, the Chinese and Finnish companies emphasize teamwork in innovations and empowering individuals but stress the importance of withholding personal liability for risks and honest mistakes emerging in innovation development. The main contribution of the study is in increasing our understanding of what kind of management practices work in different cultural settings. For example, collaboration activities concerning innovations work differently in Chinese and Finnish companies due to the difference in long-term orientation of the cultures. Moreover, this research shows that while management practices might be similar on a conceptual level, the contents and impact of similarly defined practices often differ significantly in different cultures.

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Thesis advisor

Fey, Carl

Keywords

innovation, human resource management, cultural dimensions, business system, innovation-enhancing management practices, China, Finland, international management

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https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201911176299

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ