Cultural Diversity and Innovation: The Case of the Czech Republic in Comparison to the EU

Given the controversial impact of cultural diversity on a firm's innovative capacity,the objective of this study is to explore the relationship of cultural diversity to innovation ona country level in the 2018 European Innovation Scoreboard among EU countries in accordancewith the research of Zhan et al (2015). By linking the findings to diversity management, thecase of the Czech Republic is considered specifically. Design/methodology/approach: The study is based on the 2018 European InnovationScoreboard data on the innovative potential of nations which has been correlated with thepercentage of foreigners to a nations' population. To test for significance, linear regression hasbeen employed. The scope was to investigate a potential linkage of cultural diversity andinnovation on a country level, which could prove beneficial for the theoretical field, as well asprovide implications for practitioners towards diversity management. Findings: The analysis indicates significant and mostly positive correlations of a nation'spercentage of foreigners to various factors from the European Innovation Scoreboard includingacademic research activities, venture capital investments, marketing and organisationalinnovations, as well as knowledge-intensive activities and their export. Research/practical implications: The research emphasizes the need for stronger considerationof cultural diversity in relation to innovation and emphasizes the opportunities for Czechbusinesses. Suggestions for further research focus especially on the inclusion of culturaldiversity as a variable when comparing innovation performance on a country level. Originality/value: The presented study contributes to the field by further investigating therelationship of cultural diversity and innovation and proposes the inclusion of the demographiccomposition as an additional factor in country-level analyses of innovative potential. Theinclusion of cultural diversity is so far missing in the European Innovation Scoreboard.