Innovation and income inequality

Abstract

The proposed project aims to study a socially and managerially relevant issue by bringing together our past research in two separate streams: innovation (Bapuji & Crossan, 2005; 2007; Bapuji, Crossan & Loree, 2011; Yayavaram & Ahuja, 2008; Yayavaram & Chen, 2015) and income inequality (Bapuji, 2015; Mishra, Son Hing, Yip, & Garcia, 2013). We propose to comprehensively examine the complex relationship between income inequality and innovation by examining the following research questions: (i) How does income inequality in an organization affect its innovations, and (ii) How does income inequality in a society affect innovations in that society? These studies will involve collection of data from patents, organizational financials, and macro-economic indicators.