Avoid the rational and secularist when selling your innovative product or service?

While scanning through the The IIIP Innovation Confidence Index 2008 Report published today by the The Institute for Innovation & Information Productivity I noticed one surprising finding that is illustrated in Figure 6 of the report.

They found that people in countries whose values are more “traditional” are more open to innovation than people from countries whose values are more “rational” and “secular”.

(Openness to innovation was measured by people’s responses to questions on whether they would buy products or services that are new to the market or that use new technologies, and whether they expect those products and services to improve their lives.)

This finding is so surprising to me that I wonder is there some independent confirmation from another study.