The impact of national culture on the diffusion process of innovation

Abstract: The goal of this thesis was to study the impact of national culture on the diffusion process of innovation. The study was conducted on consumers in two countries of Sweden and Iran who have significant cultural differences based on Hofstede’s five cultural dimensions model. A questionnaire designed to evaluate the tendency to adopt new products and to imitate was completed by 200 people in each of two respective countries. These participants were well distributed across different genders and age groups. The responses obtained were analyzed to evaluate the impact of culture on adoption of innovation as well as on imitation. In addition, the role of gender on the adoption of new product as well as on imitation was investigated. The analysis of the data obtained in this study clearly indicates that national culture plays a significant role on the diffusion process of innovation. These results show that the tendency to adopt new products in the Swedish culture is higher than that in the Iranian culture. In other words one can conclude that the tendency to adopt new products in countries with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, individualistic, and short term orientation culture is higher than in countries with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, collective, and long term orientation culture. The results of this research also demonstrate that gender also plays an important role in the adoption of new products. These results indicate that the tendency to adopt new product by males in both Sweden and Iran is higher than the tendency to adopt new products by their female counter parts. In other words in both feminine and masculine cultures males have more tendencies to adopt new products than females. The analysis of the data obtained in this study indicates that national culture plays a significant role on the degree of imitation. These results show that the tendency to imitate in Iranian culture is higher than in the Swedish culture. In other words the tendency to imitate in countries with high power distance, high uncertainty avoidance, collective, and long term orientation culture is higher than the tendency to imitate in countries with low power distance, low uncertainty avoidance, individualistic, and short term orientation culture. In addition, the results of this research show that gender also plays an important role in the extent of imitation. These results suggest that the tendency to imitate by females in both Sweden and Iran is higher than the tendency to imitate by their male counter parts. In other words in both feminine and masculine cultures females have more tendencies to imitate than males.