Comparative study of technological innovativeness between individuals in the USA and India

Purpose – One of the key drivers of competitiveness and growth of emerging countries is their ability to innovate. While India has successfully implemented innovative processes for software development, many Western nations have led in new product designs. The purpose of this paper is to examine the basic premise that the underlying ability of a country to innovate, while being constrained by other situational and structural factors, depends on the innate ability of especially younger individuals in a society to be innovative. Recognizing this trait, companies have recently begun considering consumers as co-creators of technological products and services. Design/methodology/approach – Research has focused on the impact of innovativeness in the adoption and use of new technological products with limited research of its impact on the design and creation process. This basic study compares the technological innovativeness of young individuals between a developed country (USA) and an emerging economy (India) along several psychological and behavioral dimensions. Scale reliabilities, principal component analyses and regression analyses were conducted to find main influencers on technological innovativeness in both countries. Findings – While hypothesis were derived that creativity, passion, expertise, thinking style and psychographics influence innovativeness, results reveal first impressions that expertise and psychographics are the main influencers on the technological innovativeness of young individuals in both countries. Moreover, a decomposition of thinking style does not add further predictive power to the model. Originality/value – The paper helps to extend the understanding as well as to carve out main drivers of technological innovativeness of young individuals across countries. Implications on cross-cultural research and for managers as well as directions for further research are discussed.