The Impact of R&D Investments on Eco-Innovation: A Cross-Cultural Perspective of Green Technology Management

This article originally seeks to explore the impact of R&D investments and societal culture on green technology management, by applying Hofstede's cross-cultural perspective. At large, we investigate if green innovation is positively associated to country cultural indulgence, as this factor indicates that basic needs are already satisfied and there is room for looking into hierarchically higher concerns. We also argue that governments’ expenditures in green innovation tend to be more effective than those of firms, because governments are more willing to invest and risk in radical innovations than businesses. The analysis is conducted on a large-scale sample of data drawn from Eurostat, including information on R&D expenditures and on eco-innovation index from European firms and governments. The results confirm our model hypotheses: governments’ investments largely predict eco-innovation, differently from firms’ expenditures. Moreover, as supposed, country's cultural indulgence has a positive effect on the eco-innovation index as well.