Uncertainty Avoidance and the Preference for Innovation Championing Roles

Abstract

This paper examines the preferences of 4405 individuals in forty-three organizations from sixty-eight different countries for four innovation championing roles: the organizational maverick, the network facilitator, the transformational leader and the organizational buffer. The study shows that the cultural value of uncertainty acceptance is significantly associated with preferences for these four championing roles. It suggests that uncertainty-accepting societies may be more innovative than uncertainty-avoiding societies because of the greater legitimacy of those roles.