  This empirical study investigates the impact of the Hofstede cultural
dimensions (HCD) on the Global Innovation Index (GII) scores in four different
years (2007, 2009, 2019 and 2021) to compare the impacts during the pre- and
post-crisis (financial and COVID-19) period by employing ordinary least square
(OLS) and robust least square (Robust) analyses. The purpose of this study is
to identify the impact of cultural factors on the innovation development for
different income groups during the pre- and post-crisis period. We found that,
in general, the same cultural properties were required for countries to enhance
innovation inputs and outputs regardless of pre- and post-crisis periods and
time variances. The significant cultural factors (driving forces) of the
innovation performance do not change over time. However, our empirical results
revealed that not the crisis itself but the income group (either developed or
developing) is the factor that influences the relationship between cultural
properties and innovation. It is also worth noting that cultural properties
have lost much of their impact on innovation, particularly in developing
countries, during recent periods. It is highly likely that in terms of
innovation, no cultural development or change can significantly impact the
innovation output of developing countries without the construction of the
appropriate systems.
