Impact of national culture on innovation activities of companies: a case of Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic

Culture is a central topic of the behavioural studies of organisation. It has an impact on various business areas and business performance. Our intention is to examine the impact of culture on innovation activities of enterprises. Given the large differences in innovation activities and innovativeness in European countries according to different rankings, it is meaningful to explore possible reasons. In this regard, authors of scientific researches explore many aspects, whereas we have focused on the impact of culture. To go deeper into our research, we conducted an analysis of two cultures from one region. One group is represented by three countries: Germany, Austria and Switzerland (AT, DE, CH, respectively). The other group is represented by the Czech Republic (CZ). By undertaking a large-scale questionnaire survey in 2015-2018, we were able to obtain approximately the same sample for both groups, which allowed us to compare and draw conclusions. Both sample groups contained more than 400 respondents, with the first group having 574 and the second group consisting of 419 respondents. The aim of the research was to analyse the impact of national cultures on business behaviour, especially with regard to innovations. The contribution of this article is a comparative study of the in-depth analysis of cultural relations and innovation activities. The main results presented in this study show that cultural aspects in the examined groups have a strong impact on perceiving business partners as reliable, having trust in benefits of mutual cooperation, presenting positive role models or encouragement to innovation and creativity in education. In particular, willingness to cooperate and less anxiety or fear of know-hows being stolen, which is observed in the group of AT, DE, CH companies, may lead them to their position of strong and excellent innovators. Meanwhile, Czech companies and their behaviour are largely influenced by their historical experiences and only starting to move towards a more open innovation culture, with strategic partnerships being a new trend.