Modelling cultural, national and innovation identities in order to understand New Zealand's modest innovation performance

Abstract

In a world that has moved swiftly to global trade, innovation rates have become one of the tools by which nations achieve success in the world. New Zealand is a middling international performer with regards to innovation. Utilizing discourse analysis and cultural consensus analysis we built models of New Zealand culture, national identity and innovation identity in order to gain insights into cultural and identity attributes that help and hinder New Zealand’s level of innovation. Results show that while inventiveness is an important cultural trait, a trait based in New Zealand’s history as a pioneering nation, there are other cultural factors such as a ‘make do’ attitude, the tall poppy syndrome, and an emphasis on lifestyle which potentially limit the innovation performance of New Zealand.