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Unleashing Inventive Power - Solving cognitive, social and geographic distance issues with cultural proximity

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  • Cathrin Söllner
  • Dirk Fornahl

Abstract

Cognitive, social and geographic distances between collaborators impact the likelihood to succeed together. This paper argues that cultural proximity moderates this impact. While taking Boschma's (2005) proximity concept as a point of departure, the informal part of institutional distance - cultural distance - is emphasized. Culture is defined following the concept of Hofstede et al. (2010), applying it one of the first times to the regional level. Results reveal that cultural proximity has different layers, all moderating the impact of cognitive, social and geographic distances. Out of the six investigated cultural distance layers, five moderate the impact of geographic distance, another five the one of social distance and four moderate the impact of cognitive distance.

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  • Cathrin Söllner & Dirk Fornahl, 2021. "Unleashing Inventive Power - Solving cognitive, social and geographic distance issues with cultural proximity," Bremen Papers on Economics & Innovation 2103, University of Bremen, Faculty of Business Studies and Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:atv:wpaper:2103
    DOI: https://doi.org/10.26092/elib/604
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    More about this item

    Keywords

    Research collaboration; cultural distance; proximity interactions; collaboration performance;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D91 - Microeconomics - - Micro-Based Behavioral Economics - - - Role and Effects of Psychological, Emotional, Social, and Cognitive Factors on Decision Making
    • R11 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Regional Economic Activity: Growth, Development, Environmental Issues, and Changes
    • R12 - Urban, Rural, Regional, Real Estate, and Transportation Economics - - General Regional Economics - - - Size and Spatial Distributions of Regional Economic Activity; Interregional Trade (economic geography)

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