Cultural diversity and enterprise innovation: a study from the perspective of dialect

Abstract

China has a vast territory. The rich and different regional culture formed over the past 5000 years is an ideal scene for the study of "culture and finance". This paper uses the number of urban dialects and dialect differentiation index to measure regional cultural diversity, and empirically studies its impact on enterprise innovation. The results show that in areas with more diverse cultures, private high-tech enterprises will obtain more innovative output. After using instrumental variables to solve endogenous problems and excluding the impact of educational development, the conclusion of this paper is still robust. Further research also found that the greater the difference between different dialects in the city where the company is located, the greater the population inflow, the better the inclusiveness and the higher the level of intellectual property protection, the more significant the impact of dialect diversity on innovation. The conclusion of this paper will help the academic community to understand the non institutional reasons behind the unbalanced economic development of Chinese cities from a new perspective, and also provide empirical evidence from non immigrant countries with deep cultural heritage for the current international academic research on "culture and finance".