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The purpose of this paper is to explore the relationship between culture and regional innovation performance in China where innovation is deemed as a key for sustainable economic development. The diversity of China’s regional culture and its rising economic and innovative capability enhancement provides an opportunity for such an exploration.

This paper adopts the GLOBE’s nine cultural dimensions to empirically examine the relationship between culture and Chinese regional innovation performance through multiple regression analysis.

The study results find that performance orientation and gender egalitarianism have positive and significant influences on regional innovation performance, while institutional collectivism has a negative and significant influence. The remaining six GLOBE cultural dimensions show no significant effect on regional innovation performance.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research exploring the relationship between culture and regional innovation performance in a Chinese context by using GLOBE’s cultural dimensions that are deemed as a valuable empirical alternative to Hofstede’s cultural measures. The results of this study help further the understanding of the cultural influence in China’s regional innovation performance.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between culture and entrepreneurial activity at both the national and regional levels of analyses. While there has been significant progress in investigating the effects of culture on entrepreneurial activity, most work overlooks the effects that time-orientation may have on national or regional entrepreneurial activity. Specifically, this study argues for the connection between long-term orientation (LTO) and subsequent levels of entrepreneurship such that the more a nation or region is long-term oriented, the higher the subsequent entrepreneurial activity will be.

Data from the World Value Survey (WVS), which is a global project that measures individuals’ values across 62 countries (World Value Survey, 2011), were used for this project. The final sample consisted of 36,652 individual observations across 29 nations and 262 regions and was analyzed using ecological factor analyses and multilevel modeling.

The findings suggest that LTO as a cultural dimension does influence entrepreneurship activity levels. The findings also suggest that the effects of LTO at the regional and national levels vary widely. Specifically, the authors find LTO to be positively related to entrepreneurship at the regional, but not national, level of analysis.

The findings reveal important nuances about the implications that the understudied cultural factor of LTO has on entrepreneurial activity across multiple levels of analysis.

The purpose of this paper is to understand the interdependence between regional culture and resilience in family business-dominated regions.

The study is based on a literature review and helps to fill the knowledge gap regarding regional culture and resilience in family business-dominated contexts.

The authors highlight similarities and differences between two regions of Sweden with distinct regional cultures that support resilience. A number of norms that are significant in generating resilient regions are identified. One key finding is that the regional culture developed during the proto-industrial era, in connection with home production, still affects and contributes to resilience in these family business-dominated regions.

The study is based on two case studies, so no generalizable conclusions can be drawn.

For policy makers, this study shows that structural crises can be overcome with a strong regional culture, as it can foster resilience. However, regional culture is hard to implement by political decisions. For owners and managers of organizations, this study suggests that it is essential to consider regional culture as an important factor for the organization.

This study draws on a comparison of two regions in Sweden with explicit regional cultures.

Along with the acceleration of Chinese urbanization, urban history degrades at a rapid rate, and development follows formalism. Based on architectural typology, this study introduces a methodology of concept mapping and discusses the urban complex design method from a perspective of regional cultural elements. The theoretical analysis shows that concept mapping represents an integrated solution that incorporates regional cultural elements into architectural planning. Through the concept mapping method, it not only protects the physical environment, but also strengthens modern urban residents’ psychological sense of belonging to their own living space. Meanwhile, distinct regional cultural elements can be efficiently combined in the overall layout, monomer building design, building details design, and landscape design of urban complex by using different architectural design methods. This design method is validated using an actual case in Guizhou. Therefore, it forms a complete set of design method with a three-step framework, namely positioning cultural areas, summarizing regional cultural elements, and selecting the mapping method and combination mode.

Entrepreneurship is increasingly recognised as a crucial element in fostering economic development and growth, especially at the regional level. The purpose of this paper is to examine the evolution of regional enterprise policies and associated governance mechanisms in the UK to address the following questions: How are evolving systems of regional governance in the UK impacting on the capability of regional policy to foster entrepreneurship? To what extent does enterprise policy form a key part of the overall economic development strategy of regions? and are different forms of regional enterprise policy and priorities emerging?

The study draws on a series of key interviews with policy makers across the regions of Wales, Scotland and England (using the case study of the Yorkshire and the Humber region). The approach adopted in this study facilitates an exploration of the perspectives of those responsible for the formulation and delivery of such support. The paper seeks to ascertain and analyse policy maker opinion on the nature of previous policy, as well as future requirements if policies are to become more effective. It focuses on the period from 1997, with the election of the Labour Government, and the period from 2010 to 2015 represented by the Conservative-Liberal Democratic Coalition Government.

The paper finds that regional entrepreneurship differentials emerge due to the spatial and place-based nature of three underlying factors: first, the nature of markets; second, the nature of innovation systems; and third, the nature of place-based cultures, communities and the institutions they establish. In the regions studied, failings and limitations in these factors suggest two potential requirements: first, the introduction of public policy in the form of a range of interventions and support mechanisms, second, the introduction of a system of policy governance to establish appropriate interventions and support mechanisms. In the case study regions, clear attempts have been made to address each of the three limiting factors through a range of policy and governance systems, but due to a complex range of issues these have often achieved limited success.

From an intellectual perspective, the paper positively points toward the establishment of governance and policy frameworks that have been both led and informed by the theory underpinning an explanation of regional differentials in entrepreneurial capacity and capability. However, from a more applied perspective it questions the effectiveness and strategic implementation of the policy frameworks and the sustainability of the associated governance mechanisms.

Extending knowledge of the cultural shaping and variegating of white identity that occurs through the commercial diffusion of identity myths, we examine the reception of Southern identity myths promoted in the oppositional narratives of New South commercial media. We characterize oppositional narratives as texts which operate by eliciting an interpretive reading that devalues rather than supports the surface narrative, and explain the duplicitous text as one intended to seduce a dominant power, while empowering and bolstering identity of a marginalized group. After elaborating how oppositional discourse can serve to reinforce the identity frame constructed by regional media producers, we report on a study examining how urban and rural Southerners read and respond to this discourse. Our findings highlight mediators in the relationship between individuals’ oppositional readings and their alignment of identity in a manner responsive to it.

The purpose this paper is to examine a prevailing assumption that the culture of organisations is homogenous. It explores the culture of one project organisation with multiple offices.

A quantitative questionnaire and qualitative research method of cultural immersion was used. The ethnographic Douglas grid‐group was used to filter the findings: isolate, competitive, hierarchical and egalitarian positions. Hofstede's dimensions were overlaid to enhance the analysis.

The research found distinct cultural differences in the same organisation. Competitive and hierarchical factors are found with some evidence of egalitarian behaviours. Regional cultural factors affected behaviour and organisational practices. Individuals actively negotiated dominant behaviours and cultural norms. The Hofstede dimensions are in evidence around roles and functions. The findings showed a stronger influence from the dominant social culture of the region than the organisational culture.

Organisations cannot be assumed as homogeneous. The influence of the dominant social culture and competing cultural influences within organisation requires further analysis.

Generating a coherent organisational culture with aligned norms is a difficult management problem, especially for an organisation with multiple offices. Establishing consistent norms also poses challenges for the management of projects.

The tendency to assume cultural homogeneity requires closer attention in organisational research and practice. This paper employed a unique combination of methods to explore the issue. The primary contribution is a demonstration of the need for practitioners and researchers to pay more attention to the dynamic formation and effects of culture in organisations and for projects.

This chapter reviews and critiques the recent evolution of place-based entrepreneurship policy in the United Kingdom, in particular the governance of policies targeted at the regional level to promote economic development and competitiveness. The focus of the chapter is the evolution occurring from 1997, when the Labour government came to power, through to the period leading to the Conservative–Liberal Democrat coalition government, which came to power in 2010.

A review and critique of key academic and policy-based literature.

The chapter shows the way in which governance systems and policies aimed at stimulating entrepreneurship have permeated regional development policy at a number of levels in the United Kingdom. In general, the overarching themes of enterprise policy are similar across the regions, but the difference in governance arrangements demonstrates how emphasis and delivery varies.

Place-based enterprise policy needs long-term commitment, with interventions required to survive changes in approaches to governance if they are to prove effective; something which has been far from the case in recent years. Whilst the analysis is drawn from the case of the United Kingdom, the lessons with regard to the connection between regional modes of governance and effective policy implementation are ones that resonate across other nations that are similarly seeking to stimulate the development of entrepreneurial regions.

Evidence of ongoing disparities in regional economic development and competitiveness, linked to differences in regional business culture, suggest the continuance of market failure, whereby leading regions continue to attract resources and stimulate entrepreneurial opportunities at the expense of less competitive regions.

The time period covered by the chapter – 1997 onwards – forms an historic era with regard to changing regional governance and enterprise policy in the United Kingdom, with the emergence – and subsequent demise – of regional development agencies (RDAs) across English regions, as well as the introduction of regional governments in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, which were handed certain powers for economic and enterprise development from the UK central government.

The purpose of this paper is to propose an integrated theory to explain the effect of regional culture on high-technology micro and small (HTMS) firm outcomes. The integrated culture-social capital outcomes (CSCO) model examines the impact of culture on performance and evolution of HTMS firms through the mediating effect of intra-firm and inter-firm social capital.

Theoretical insights from social capital and culture are combined with the results of previous empirical observations to explain cross-cultural differences in the performance of HTMS firms. The authors then propose the CSCO model as a means to integrate and advance theory building.

The CSCO model explains the impact of culture on performance and evolution of HTMS firms through intra-firm and inter-firm social capital networks. Cultural context affects the performance of high-tech micro and small firms through the nature and structure of the networks involved in building and exploiting inter-firm and intra-firm social capital. Moreover, regional culture indirectly influences the balance between positive and negative effects of social capital on firm performance. These observations explain inconsistent findings from past empirical research and contribute to understanding the “embeddedness paradox” of social capital.

The present model is not comprehensive. It does not account for many contextual factors identified in organizational network and cluster literature that contribute to the development of HTMS firms. Future research should consider the relationships between the three dimensions of social capital and seek to test the model with rigorous data collection and analysis.

While past studies focus on the direct relationship between regional culture and firm performance, this paper proposes the mediating effect of internal and external social capital between cultural context and firm performance. This proposal contributes to social capital and entrepreneurship literature and provides a potential explanation for inconsistent findings in past empirical research.