Confucianism: Ancient ideology or driving force of the future? A scoping review on the effect of Confucian culture on innovation

Abstract

This paper explores the ambiguous relationship between Confucian culture and innovation based on the scholarly literature. Applying a scoping review approach, the purpose of the literature review is to uncover the reasons behind the ambiguities of empirical research results and conceptualizations of how Confucianism affects innovation on the individual and on the organizational level. The paper builds on the assumption that the different operationalizations of Confucian culture are behind these contradictions. Since Confucianism is an ideology that has developed for over 2000 years, and even its most often cited virtues and principles are quite heterogenous, approaches to its operationalization in the field of management are also diverse. The results of the literature review indicate that different approaches to Confucian culture indeed show homogeneity in the conceptualization of the Confucianism-innovation relationship. Virtues and principles related to rigid hierarchies and great power distance have a detrimental effect, while others a rather positive one. Therefore, the paper argues that a more specific denomination of cultural factors should be necessary to avoid biased and unspecified results in both theoretical and empirical approaches.