DIMENSIONS OF NATIONAL INNOVATION CULTURE IN CROATIA Content Validity of Hofstede's Dimensions

Abstract

Faced with the challenge to increase the level of innovation in science and technology many societies have developed a national innovation system as a form of public policy programs. If innovative culture is crucial for the adoption and development of new technologies, it is of great importance to explore the con-cept and possibly find out which type of culture is more innova-tive than others. Presented in the paper are the results of the first empirical study of innovation culture in Croatia based on a sur-vey on the representative sample of Croatian population. Dra-wing on Hofstede's concept of dimensions of national culture, Croatian national innovation culture is operationalized as a set of value orientations and norms (uncertainty avoidance, individua-lism, masculinity - femininity, long-term or short-term orientation, and power distance). Four scales based on Hofstede's dimensions were constructed, which mainly support the content validity of his concept. They could be used to measure differences in innovative capacity between groups and regions. The analysis shows the pre-sence of multiple dimensions of innovation culture in Croatia that might hinder innovation capacity, but this doesnt necessary lead to the conclusion that we can identify one type culture elements as the only model for strengthening the innovative culture. (English) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]