The Impact of Sustainable Input on Regional Innovation Performance: Moderating Effects of Policy Support and Cultural Value

Abstract

Innovation, an internal drive promoting regional sustainable economic development, has received great attention around the world. The goal of this paper is to explore the relationship between sustainable input and regional innovation performance under the moderating effects of policy support and cultural value in various regions in China. This paper uses Schwartz’s cultural dimensions and data from 31 Chinese provinces (2006–2018) to empirically examine the relationships of interest. Based on the 403 total samples, the results reveal that innovation input has a significantly positive impact on regional innovation performance, and policy support positively moderates the relationship between regional innovation input and innovation performance. Further, with regard to cultural values, embeddedness (vs. autonomy) negatively moderates the relationship between sustainable input and innovation performance, while egalitarianism (vs. hierarchy) and mastery (vs. harmony) positively moderate this relationship. We discuss the implications of our findings for policy.