Cultural insights of CSI: how do Italian and Iranian firms differ?

Both scholars and practitioners have paid little attention to the social innovation issue at for-profit firm’s level. This is particularly true with reference to the role that culture and cultural diversities may have in shaping firms’ orientation toward Corporate Social Innovation (CSI). According to the underlined observation, this paper aims to fill the existing research gap about the topic. Through an inductive approach, an extensive literary review about the cultural drivers of innovation and Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been carried to gain a wide understanding of CSI. Hofstede’s cultural model has been, then, used to interpret the cultural insights of CSI in two geographical and psychological distant countries, namely Italy and Iran. This cross-cultural comparison will allow both academics and practitioners to recognize culture as key driver of firms’ propensity to adopt social innovative practices.