Advancing an Asia-centric Perspective of Innovation

Abstract

Organizations around the world increasingly face volatile environments characterized by rapidly changing market conditions and evolving consumer demands. These signal the need for organizations to continuously innovate in order to sustain competitive advantage. Despite the universal importance of innovation, innovation researchers repeatedly call for more emphasis on boundaries to the universality in innovation and its country- and culture-specific issues. This symposium applies a cross-cultural perspective, specifically an Asia- centric perspective, on understanding the antecedents and workings of innovation. The authors present a comprehensive set of studies, including one conceptual framework on national cultures’ influence on innovation and four empirical studies that demonstrate cross-national differences in innovation antecedents (e.g., configurations in ambidextrous leadership and team initiative, and entrepreneurial opportunity identification) and innovation outcomes (e.g., firm product innovativeness and innovativeness perceptions). The discussions generated by this symposium contribute to a deepened understanding and appreciation of both the rich diversity in Asian cultures and the context-specificity of innovation. Advancing an Asia-centric perspective of innovation Presenter: Sylvia Hubner; Free U. of Bozen-Bolzano Presenter: Wei Deng; Northwestern Polytechnical U. Presenter: Ameek Kaur; National U. of Singapore Presenter: Jomel Wei Xuan Ng; National U. of Singapore Presenter: Jasper Teow; National U. of Singapore Presenter: Zhaoli Song; National U. of Singapore Presenter: Ronak Gupta; Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi Presenter: Abrar Ali Sayed; Ozyegin U. Presenter: Leonard Lee; National U. of Singapore