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The Complexity Turn in Cultures’ Consequences on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Quality-of-Life

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The Complexity Turn

Abstract

This study examines influences on quality-of-life of national cultures as complex wholes and entrepreneurship activities in Brazil, Russia, India, China, Germany, and the United States. The study tests McClelland’s (1961) and more recent scholars’ proposition that some cultural recipes nurture entrepreneur startups while other cultures are biased toward thwarting startups. The study applies complexity theory to construct and empirically test a general theory of cultures’, entrepreneurship’s, and innovation’s impact on quality-of-life across nations. Because culture represents a complex whole of attitudes, beliefs, values, and behavior, the study applies a set-theoretic approach to theory construction and testing of alternative cultural recipes. Each of 28 nations is scored for the level of the national cultures for each of six focal countries. The findings include presenting the complex X (national cultural recipe) with Y (entrepreneur nurture/thwart) plots of the 28 nations for the six focal nations. The findings include recognizing national cultures (Switzerland, USA) nurturing entrepreneurial behavior versus other national cultures thwarting (Brazil and India) entrepreneurial behavior. The study concludes with a call to recognize the implicit shift in cultural implicit thinking and behavior necessary for advancing national platforms of actions to nurture entrepreneurship successfully. Entrepreneur strategy implications follow from the findings including the observation that actions nurturing firm start-ups by nations low in entrepreneurship will unlikely to be successful without reducing such nations’ high levels of corruption.

“But we are not Denmark! I love Denmark. We’re the United States of America and it’s our job to rein in the excesses of capitalism so it doesn’t run amok!” (Hilary Clinton, Las Vegas, Democrat Presidential Primary Debate 2015)

“You’re not to think you are anything special.” (First rule in the Danish Law of Janteloven)

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The evidence is mixed as to whether the USA is shifting toward or away from Denmark on the cultural value where the two countries most differ—masculinity. Since 1920 versus 1915 respectively, women do have the right to vote now in the USA as well as in Denmark, though in 2014 education attainment by women in Denmark ties for first place while being 39th in the USA; on nearly all family/child nurturing programs as well as pay gender-disparity, Denmark does better than the USA (SIGI, 2014). Thus, Sanders’ suggestion to look to Denmark and Clinton’s implied response that overcoming resistance to change the cultural configuration for a country is nearly impossible. However, national cultures do shift; successful efforts to do so usually require new national laws and enforcement programs (e.g., Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution; U.S.1964 Civils Rights Act; 1973 Danish Gender Equal Pay Act and “Gender Mainstreaming” acts in Denmark and the European Union).

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Acknowledgements

The authors express their gratitude to the Global Entrepreneurship Research Association (GERA) for providing “National Experts Survey” data from the GEM 2014 study for use in the present study. The data analysis and interpretation of the GEM 2014 experts data is original in the present study and not necessarily indicate the views of members of the GERA.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Curtin University, Perth, WA, Australia

    Arch G. Woodside

  2. School of Marketing, Curtin University, Bentley Campus, South Perth, WA, Australia

    Arch G. Woodside

  3. University Navarra, Pamplona, Spain

    Pedro Mir Bernal

  4. University of Valencia, Valencia, Spain

    Alicia Coduras

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  1. Arch G. Woodside
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  2. Pedro Mir Bernal
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  3. Alicia Coduras
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Correspondence to Arch G. Woodside .

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  1. Department of Marketing, Boston College, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, USA

    Arch G. Woodside

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Woodside, A.G., Bernal, P.M., Coduras, A. (2017). The Complexity Turn in Cultures’ Consequences on Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Quality-of-Life. In: Woodside, A. (eds) The Complexity Turn. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47028-3_5

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