Social Learning of Innovation Skills: Does Promoting Cross-Cultural Interaction Improve Human Capital?

This research project builds on the finding that people from underdeveloped countries have lower innovation skills than people from developed countries. Prior literature hints at the possibility that these skills may be learned through social interaction. However, empirical evidence that accounts for the transfer of innovation skills between developed countries and their underdeveloped counterparts is lacking. I plan to test the phenomenon of social learning of innovation skills between underdeveloped and developed countries. I will do this by conducting a field quasi-experiment that measures the effect that highly skilled entrepreneurial employers from a developed country have on the improvement of innovation skills of employees from a developing country. Theoretical contributions are expected to social learning theory, and to the fields of innovation and organizational behavior. Furthermore, by potentially discovering a replicable model that helps improve entrepreneurship and innovation capabilities in developing economies, I hope to make a practical contribution to future efforts of designing effective policies for economic growth. The budget of the project is $10,300.