Traditional Cultural And Corporate Innovation

With the rising trend of "culture and finance" in recent years,domestic and international academics have begun to pay attention to the importance of culture as an informal institution for socio-economic development,but most of these studies are currently based on Western contexts,and there are still relatively few studies on traditional Eastern cultures.In Eastern countries,many companies is deeply influenced by traditional culture,for example,the corporate culture of Panasonic Group is influenced by Buddhist culture,Confucian culture and Bushido culture,Haier Group’s corporate culture is deeply influenced by the Confucian culture of "benevolence","harmony" and "honesty".Chinese culture has a long history and has formed many traditional cultures with Chinese characteristics during its long history.From a broad classification,it includes orthodox culture,religious culture and ghost culture,and from a subdivision,it includes Confucian culture,legal culture,Taoist culture,Buddhist culture,clan culture,and familism culture.The traditional Chinese culture has been slowly formed in 5,000 years of history,and the ideas and values it possesses have been deeply influencing people’s mindset and behavior for a long time.At the same time,culture,as an important informal institutional constraint,has an impact on macro-institutions such as law and politics.From the micro individual level and macro environment level,culture will eventually affect micro corporate behavior.In China’s market transformation and the advancement of innovative nation building,traditional culture plays an important value and function of the times,and more and more scholars have started to study corporate governance behavior from the perspective of culture in recent years.Regarding the influence of culture on micro-firm behavior,the innovation activities of companies have been in constant focus.At present,the domestic research on traditional culture and innovation behavior of enterprises still needs to be expanded and improved,and the research in the existing literature focuses on the innovation achievements of enterprises-the number of patent applications.The innovation decision of enterprises is reflected in the innovation scale and innovation efficiency of enterprises,and innovation input is the source of innovation.Based on the existing research,this paper further explores the influence of China’s representative traditional culture on the innovation behavior of enterprises.This paper takes 2007-2020 China’s non-financial A-share listed companies in Shanghai and Shenzhen as the research object,using a geographical distance model to measure the concentration of religious atmosphere in the location of listed companies based on the number of Buddhist and Taoist activity sites,which have the most followers in China,using upper echelon theory and institutional theory as the foundation and empirical analysis as the method to explore the influence of religious atmosphere on enterprise innovation,and the mechanism by which religion affect firms’ innovation capacity are analyzed.It also tested whether the inhibitory effect of religious traditions on innovation is influenced by local cultural diversity and foreign cultural shocks,and examines the moderating effects of formal institutions,such as the degree of product market competition and the level of legal development.The moderating role of formal institutions such as the degree of product market competition and the level of legal development is also examined,and furthermore,heterogeneity tests were conducted for different firm properties.Finally,based on the theoretical analysis and empirical results,this paper puts forward relevant suggestions.This paper finds that:(1)religious tradition has a restraining effect on the innovation ability of enterprises,that is,the stronger the religious atmosphere in the place where the enterprise is located,the less the innovation investment of the enterprise,and the innovation efficiency will also be relatively lower;(2)The inhibition effect of religious tradition on the innovation ability of enterprises is partially transmitted through the risk bearing level of enterprises,that is,religious traditions will inhibit enterprise innovation activities by reducing the risk bearing level of enterprises;(3)The inhibiting effect of religious traditions on corporate innovation is more pronounced in companies in regions with less cultural variety in China,and more pronounced in companies in regions with weaker impact from foreign cultures;(4)There is an alternative relationship between formal systems and informal systems,that is,in areas with high degree of competition in the product market and perfect legal systems,the inhibition effect of religious tradition on enterprise innovation is weakened;(5)The inhibition effect of religious traditions on the innovation ability of enterprises is more obvious in non-high-tech enterprises,and non-state-owned enterprises.Based on the current situation that China’s formal system is becoming more and more perfect but still defective,this paper studies the influence of religious tradition on the innovation ability of enterprises from the perspective of informal systems,enriches the research literature on the economic consequences of eastern religions,and deepens the relationship between religious tradition and micro-enterprise behaviors.Based on previous research,this paper explores the governance role of religious tradition more comprehensively from the dual perspectives of innovation scale and innovation efficiency.The research results of this paper have positive significance for exploring the moral and ethical basis in corporate governance,which is helpful to dialectically view traditional religious culture,and accelerate the construction of formal systems while promoting their positive effects and suppressing their negative effects,so that formal and informal systems can better promote social development.