Psychological Openness and the Emergence of Breakthrough vs. Incremental Innovations: A Regional Perspective

IF 7.2 1区经济学 Q1 ECONOMICS Economic Geography Pub Date : 2022-05-20 DOI:10.1080/00130095.2022.2049228

Lars Mewes, Tobias Ebert, M. Obschonka, P. Rentfrow, J. Potter, S. Gosling

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引用次数: 3

Abstract

Abstract Breakthrough innovations are expected to have a bigger impact on local economies than incremental innovations do. Yet past research has largely neglected the regional drivers of breakthrough innovations. Building on theories that highlight the role of personality psychology and human agency in shaping regional innovation cultures, we focus on psychological openness as a potential explanation for why some regions produce more breakthrough innovations than others do. We use a large data set of psychological personality profiles (∼1.26M individuals) to estimate the openness of people in metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs) in the US. Our results reveal that psychological openness is strongly associated with the emergence of breakthrough innovations but not with the emergence of incremental innovations. The findings remained robust after controlling for an extensive set of predictors of regional innovation such as star inventors, star scientists, or knowledge diversity. The results held even when we used tolerance as an alternative indicator of openness. Taken together, our results provide robust evidence that openness is relevant for regional innovation performance, serving as an important predictor for breakthrough innovations but not for incremental innovations.

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心理开放与突破与增量创新的产生：区域视角

摘要突破性创新对地方经济的影响预计比增量创新更大。然而，过去的研究在很大程度上忽略了突破性创新的区域驱动因素。在强调人格心理学和人类能动性在塑造区域创新文化中的作用的理论基础上，我们关注心理开放性，这是为什么一些地区比其他地区产生更多突破性创新的潜在解释。我们使用心理人格特征的大数据集（约126万人）来估计美国大都市统计区（MSAs）人群的开放性。我们的结果表明，心理开放性与突破性创新的出现密切相关，但与增量创新的出现无关。在控制了一系列广泛的区域创新预测因素（如明星发明家、明星科学家或知识多样性）后，这些发现仍然稳健。即使我们将容忍度作为开放性的替代指标，结果仍然成立。总之，我们的研究结果提供了强有力的证据，证明开放性与区域创新绩效相关，是突破性创新的重要预测因素，但不是增量创新的重要指标。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Economic Geography Multiple-

CiteScore

9.70

自引率

2.90%

发文量

期刊介绍： Economic Geography is a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to publishing original research that advances the field of economic geography. Their goal is to publish high-quality studies that are both theoretically robust and grounded in empirical evidence, contributing to our understanding of the geographic factors and consequences of economic processes. It welcome submissions on a wide range of topics that provide primary evidence for significant theoretical interventions, offering key insights into important economic, social, development, and environmental issues. To ensure the highest quality publications, all submissions undergo a rigorous peer-review process with at least three external referees and an editor. Economic Geography has been owned by Clark University since 1925 and plays a central role in supporting the global activities of the field, providing publications and other forms of scholarly support. The journal is published five times a year in January, March, June, August, and November.