Exploring the relationship between organizational culture and innovation

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Journal Title

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Volume Title

School of Business | Master's thesis

Authors

Date

2018

Department

Johtamisen laitos

Major/Subject

Mcode

Degree programme

Management and International Business (MIB)

Language

en

Pages

66+1

Series

Abstract

Abstract This thesis aims exploring the interconnection between organizational culture and innovation in Chinese IT firms so as to find out the key drivers for innovation from culture perspective. China as the largest internet market (731 million internet users) in the whole world, has attracted many foreign IT companies to invest in, which is a promising and worthwhile market for research. China’s unique national culture rooted in Confucianism and Taoism also results in different types of organizational culture facilitating innovation in China. In this study, the background of Chinese internet industry will be presented in Chapter 1. In Chapter 2, the concepts of culture, national culture and organizational culture will be discussed based on previous academic studies, especially the effects of national culture on organizational culture will be illustrated. Then in Chapter 3, the relationship between organizational culture and innovation will be analyzed. Next, the research methodology qualitative research for this study will be introduced in Chapter 4. Followed by empirical analyses of the case companies in Chapter 5, four cases will be compared and linked to the theories discussed before. In Chapter 6, new findings based on the cases will be presented and discussed. The limitations of the study will be addressed in Chapter 7. Last Chapter 8, suggestions for future studies in Chinese context will be introduced. The research shows that Chinese Internet Company usually has very friendly, flexible and innovative culture. On one side, many companies have been investing heavily in research and development in new technologies like AI products, SaaS platform. On the other side, some managerial practices are well applied to daily work, such as performance-based reward (stock options, annual bonus, innovation award), feedback collection from customers and business partners, regular training and coach lessons. All these practices at work results in the flexible and creative working environment which facilitates innovation.

Description

Thesis advisor

Fey, Carl

Keywords

organisational culture, innovation, internet industry, China

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Citation

Permanent link to this item

https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:aalto-201812216792

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[gradu] Kauppakorkeakoulu / BIZ