Social capital, personal values and economic development: effect on innovation. An international analysis

Abstract

Although it is widely accepted that innovation plays an important role in economic growth and development, which factors influence innovation remains an important question of debate in the economic literature. This article focuses on the influence exerted by social capital (SC) and personal values (PVs), given the lack of studies that jointly incorporate these two variables. This paper attempts to fill this gap by using a methodology that additionally includes the national income of the country as a moderating factor on innovation. Using data from the World Value Survey, our study finds that the influence of SC on innovation is not as relevant as expected, and that the effect of personal values is moderated by the level of economic development. This finding contributes to a better understanding of the role played by SC and PVs in the economic development process via their effects on innovation.

Keywords:

• Innovation
• social capital
• values
• culture
• national income
• economic development

ORCID

Carmen Guzmán http://orcid.org/0000-0002-5290-8841