Relationship between Innovation and Cultural Diversity: Review of Concepts

Abstract

Innovation, cultural background and diversity in firms has attracted a serious research attention over the last few years. In our paper, we have attempted to make a literature review of innovation and cultural diversity concepts and theories. First, we have looked through definitions and characteristics of diversity itself and then we have covered definitions for culture and innovation. Then, we focused on the relationship between innovation and cultural diversity. We defined that existence of foreigners in firms can influence on innovation performance, as well as that diasporas can play significant role in enhancing the innovativeness. In addition, we found from the review the high importance of city and migrant diversity for firms aiming to increase its innovativeness. Results of the literature review reveals a considerable spurt and existence of a lot of knowledge gaps in this field. The aim of this study was to provide an up-to-date and detailed review of the literature on relationship between innovation and cultural diversity.

Keywords: innovation, cultural diversity, literature review, cultural background