Nineteenth International Conference on Environmental, Cultural, Economic & Social Sustainability

Abstract

The ability to create, acquire and scale innovation is a critical prerequisite for competing successfully in the global market. Cultural variations, human propensities, and social identity play measurable roles in the conception, acceptance and scaling of innovative capabilities. The correlation between innovation and identities studies highlights the significance of contextualisation. While innovation is about improved alternatives and novelty, identity is rooted in interpreting meaning and essence of existence. This contrast creates an underlying rigidity. I argued societies do not conceive and accept innovative capabilities simply because of a need or challenge that exists within the society. I uncovered that innovative capability adoption fall on a spectrum from an individual’s interaction with the society at large, group socialisations and associational roles. This scope results in a mutually constitutive dynamic in which identity and innovation reinforce each other. Where innovation does not align with social identity, it becomes Identity-challenging and creates a social discord and dysfunctional dynamics. Therefore, I present additional evidence of the complex structures that influence the acceptance and scaling of innovation within specific communities. In this paper, the contextualisation capability model was used to establish the nexus between innovation and setting. Innovation capability is defined as a multi-dimensional construct based on the need to contextualise innovation. This conceptual model helps identity groups focus on the patterns that are most important for the ongoing development of contextualisation innovations capability. This paper argues that Africa’s innovative capabilities will be impaired if attention is not given to the contextualisation of ethnoreligious identity.