Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to conduct a systematic literature review of the studies that have analyzed the impact of culture on innovation. Design/methodology/approach: The authors carried out a systematic literature review of peer-reviewed articles in the past 37 years (January 1980-January 2017). Based on a total of 61 identified primary studies, the authors developed two clusters of culture definition studied in relation to innovation, including organizational culture and national culture. Findings: After reporting the findings of the systematic literature review, the authors discuss how a variety of culturally related factors combine to facilitate or restrict innovation performance in their corresponding cluster. The findings highlight the complex and idiosyncratic relationship between culture and innovation. Future research lines are recommended. Research limitations/implications: The authors adopt a systematic literature review method to probe into existing literature, inevitably missing some empirical studies. Implications for future research are suggested. Practical implications: The paper offers interesting implications for managers and academia. For business practitioners, this study can provide a useful reference regarding the role of cultures in the corporate internal management or international operations; for scholars, the study can provide a current research landscape and development process in this field. Originality/value: The findings are derived from a systematic literature review that has studied the influence of culture on innovation. In addition, implications and insights as to where future research might be usefully inquired in this field are provided.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships between environment turbulence, knowledge transfer and innovation performance for emerging market multinationals (EMNEs) in an asymmetric international R&D alliance.Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a survey of high-tech firms in Zhejiang Province of China from 2013 to 2015.Findings: Innovation performance of EMNEs is positively influenced by knowledge transfer activities (knowledge replication and knowledge adaption), technological and market turbulence, while negatively influenced by institutional turbulence. In addition, different aspects of environmental turbulence moderate the relationship between knowledge transfer practices and innovation performance of EMNEs differently.Research limitations/implications: Future studies could use a longitudinal design to capture the dynamism driving innovation performance of EMNEs through R&D alliances.Practical implications: Practical guidelines are provided particularly for EMNE managers on how to develop an innovation strategy by leveraging external knowledge, adaptive innovation and environmental turbulence.Originality/value: This study deepens the knowledge of how EMNEs enhance their innovation by building the linkage between environmental turbulence and absorptive capacity through knowledge transfer activities in an asymmetric international R&D alliance.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between culture and regional innovation performance in China where innovation is deemed as a key for sustainable economic development. The diversity of China’s regional culture and its rising economic and innovative capability enhancement provides an opportunity for such an exploration. Design/methodology/approach: This paper adopts the GLOBE’s nine cultural dimensions to empirically examine the relationship between culture and Chinese regional innovation performance through multiple regression analysis. Findings: The study results find that performance orientation and gender egalitarianism have positive and significant influences on regional innovation performance, while institutional collectivism has a negative and significant influence. The remaining six GLOBE cultural dimensions show no significant effect on regional innovation performance. Originality/value: To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research exploring the relationship between culture and regional innovation performance in a Chinese context by using GLOBE’s cultural dimensions that are deemed as a valuable empirical alternative to Hofstede’s cultural measures. The results of this study help further the understanding of the cultural influence in China’s regional innovation performance.

The ecosystem perspective on innovation and business are becoming critical for organizational innovation, but there is a lack of theoretical consistency concerning the terminology of innovation ecosystem. To remedy this research gap, we introduce the innovation ecosystem in the international business (IB) context and enrich the research about innovation ecosystems. To fulfill our research goals, we conducted a systematic literature review of articles published in ABS journals during the period 1991–2018. Based on a systematical review of a total of 100 articles, we identified thematic differences within the literature related to how culture influences innovation in the IB context (e.g. antecedent/driver, output and commercialization of innovation) and proposed the concept of an innovation ecosystem. In addition, our study also finds that cultural factors run through every link of the innovation ecosystem in the IB context, which lays out the future research agenda.