The professors’ research explores the effects that corruption and diversity have on innovation across countries.
Cassandra DiRienzo, professor of economics, and Tina Das, Lincoln Financial Professor of Economics, co-authored “Innovation and the Role of Corruption and Diversity: A Cross-Country Study” in the International Journal of Cross Cultural Management.
The paper’s abstract reads:
“Research has established that various socioeconomic and institutional factors affect the rate of country-level innovation. However, little attention has been given to the effects of corruption and cultural diversity on innovation in cross-country analyses. It is widely accepted that innovation is a major engine of national economic growth, and policy makers and business leaders have recognized the need to create environments that foster innovative activities. This study builds on previous research using the Global Innovation Index (GII, 2009) to empirically explore the impact of corruption and its interactive relationship with economic development, in addition to the effect of three different measures of diversity on country-level innovation. The results of this analysis suggest that corruption significantly harms innovation activities across countries, but the effect is mitigated in wealthier countries. As expected, ethnic diversity weakens innovation activities; however, religious diversity, which can be a proxy for tolerance, is found to positively contribute to innovation.”
According to its website, the International Journal of Cross Cultural Management is “an international peer reviewed journal that publishes the highest quality original research in cross cultural aspects of management, work and organization. In particular it aims to be the first choice for scholarship that develops critical advances in knowledge, which challenges orthodoxy in international and cross-cultural research, which critically reviews current knowledge taking it to the next level, which presents new and exciting approaches, alternative paradigms, alternative cultural perspectives, and challenges the hegemony of Western management knowledge.”