Demographic change and innovation: The ongoing challenge from the diversity of the labor force

The demographic change influences the composition of the labor force in terms of a decreasing number of the workforce, its age structure, the quantitative relationship between men and women such as the proportion between people with migration background and native citizens. The new diversity of the workforce has consequences for the innovativeness of social groups, organization and regions. This literature review shows the state of research on the impact of diversity caused by the demographic change on innovation, captured on corporate and regional level, this means the relationship between diversity and innovation variables is examined in a micro-economic and a macro-economic approach. The aim is to summarize and to highlight utilizable insights as well as to identify research gaps. The results indicate the need to link the theoretical approaches, methods and results from the discussed research fields better and to develop new concepts build on this.