Why should I share my new ideas? Cultural barriers to innovation spreading

Both globalisation and the fast growth of international competition impel firms to continuously innovate in order to sustain their own competitive advantage. Firms’ innovative capacity depends on their ability to grasp new knowledge through cooperative arrangements, thus the effectiveness of knowledge transfer became more and more important in allowing both organizations’ and local contexts growth. When firms are deeply embedded in a given context, they may relate with local actors; complex learning process can arise thanks to institutional support, and cultural homogeneity, thus fostering the diffusion of new and valuable knowledge and the growth of local context, at least. On the contrary, when an effective knowledge transfer among the parties does not exist, an innovation does not spread its effects over the context, thus advantage the only firm that realised it.Not surprising, therefore, firms usually locate into those areas where a positive entrepreneurial atmosphere already exists. An existing asset of “contextual knowledge” attract firms; after located in given knowledge and relational systems, firms may be able to support local growth by introducing, not only financial resources, but also new knowledge and other valuable intangibles (i.e.: notoriety). Knowledge transfer is a very complex and often misunderstood process. Its effectiveness depends on the willingness of the involved parties to transfer and acquire knowledge. Both the propensity to transfer and to acquire new knowledge is culturally embedded; as a consequence innovation spreading is affected by culture, too. National culture influences individuals’ inclination to take risks, to share responsibilities and to accept others’ idea, determining consequently firms’ capacity to find and evaluate external opportunities.According to the above considerations, our paper aims at analyzing in depth the influence of culture on innovation spreading and particularly on donor’s intentionality, and receiver’s inclination to transfer and share their knowledge. As a result, a new interpretative model of innovation spreading systems will be proposed.