Reflection as a facilitator of teachers' innovative work behaviour

The aim of this study was to investigate the role of reflection as a preparatory mechanism for employees' engagement in innovative work behaviour (IWB). This issue was explored in a study with 67 teachers at the highest level of German secondary education. Specifically, we investigated whether teachers who reflected on work tasks, the social context and their work performance were more engaged in the exploration of opportunities for innovation as well as the generation, promotion and realization of innovative ideas. By applying path modelling, we found that work‐related reflection facilitated all dimensions of IWB. Teachers' IWB most strongly depended on their performance‐related reflection. Also, reflecting on work tasks and the social context affected teachers' IWB indirectly by benefitting their performance‐related reflection. As a consequence, reflection should be valued as a resource for innovation and professional development as well as a vital component of work routines, organizational cultures and job training.     

The impact of espoused national cultural values on innovative behaviour: an empirical study in the Chinese IT-enabled global service industry

In this article, we explore the different roles that knowledge sharing and exploitative learning play in employees’ innovative behaviour, and investigate the different moderating effects of employees’ espoused national cultural values on the relationship between exploitative learning and innovative behaviour in the Chinese IT-enabled global service firms with different ownerships. We propose a theoretical model to characterize these antecedents of innovative behaviour. A structured research survey was conducted and data were collected from a sample of 484 full-time employees in 3 IT-enabled global service firms in the PRC. Results indicate that knowledge sharing is positively associated with innovative behaviour in multinational corporations and private IT-enabled global service; espoused power distance has a significant positive moderating effect on exploitative learning–innovative behaviour relationship in state-owned and private firms; espoused collectivism has a significant moderating effect only in state-owned firms in China. Last, we explore the implications of our findings for theory and practice of innovation.     

Employees striving for innovation in social enterprises: The roles of social mission and commitment-based human resource management

Social enterprises, promising organizations for solving societal problems with innovative approaches, rely upon their members’ active roles for workplace innovation. However, we still have a limited understanding about how social enterprises can foster employees’ endeavors for innovation. By focusing on employee learning and innovative behavior, we investigate the influences of perceived social mission, value congruence, and human resource management (HRM) practices in social enterprises. We conducted two complementary studies to answer our research questions. In Study 1, with a survey of 369 employees from 68 social enterprises, we examined a multilevel moderated mediation model with firm-level and individual-level data. We found that perceived social mission promoted learning and innovative behavior by increasing value congruence, and that commitment-based HRM practices enhanced the overall process from mission to employee efforts for innovation. In Study 2, with 300 daily surveys from 60 employees participating in an experience sampling study, we found that those with high-value congruence showed a significantly more stable pattern with less variance in innovative behavior than in learning behavior. Our study adds novel implications to the underdeveloped literature on employee innovation and HRM in social enterprises by uncovering the positive effects of social mission and value facets for boosting learning and innovative behaviors. Our research also suggests that social enterprises should benefit from pursuing and emphasizing the social mission and commitment-based HRM bundle together, which will promote the prosperity and well-being of business and society.     

Employee involvement in ideation and healthcare service innovation quality

ABSTRACT

This study hypothesizes and empirically tests the influence of involvement of (1) frontline employees and (2) top managers in ideation process on healthcare service innovation quality. Based on data from 168 service innovation projects in Dutch healthcare organizations, the empirical results indicate that frontline employee involvement and top management involvement in, respectively, idea generation and idea application both improve the quality of healthcare service innovation. We find that the positive effect of frontline employee involvement is stronger under the condition of higher service innovativeness. In the direct relationship of top management involvement and healthcare service innovation quality, our data do not show such a moderating effect. The key and general managerial implication of the findings is that healthcare organizations are inspired to involve frontline employees in the idea generation processes and involve top managers in the idea application processes of service innovation projects, in order to improve innovation quality.     

Market or society? Dual orientations and the impact on innovativeness in media organizations

Shortening life cycles of products and new technologies make innovation a vital part of the long-term growth and survival of firms. Interestingly, media firms see themselves in a particular difficult position in innovation because traditional values such as public information access, good taste, information diversity, and social responsibility can be in conflict with the market success of certain new media products and services. This is also a key reason why there are public media firms in certain information markets in the first place. In this study, two different orientations in media organizations are studied simultaneously, namely “market orientation” and “social responsibility orientation” in relation to innovativeness. Based on a sample of 54 Dutch media organizations, we find that firms scoring high on both dimensions are not necessarily more or less innovative (indicating that innovations emerge in the whole orientation space). What is important for innovativeness is the degree to which professionals identify with the orientations of the firm. The broader implications of a more prominent role of social responsibility in NPD are discussed.     

Service encounters as bases for innovation

This article examines the factors affecting the innovativeness of service encounters – either as drivers or as barriers. The assumption is that a considerable number of innovations in service industries are initiated in service encounters and that employees are the core factor in connecting customers with the innovating organization. Based on literature studies and pilot case studies, seven propositions are proposed and tested in a qualitative, hermeneutic way in field experiments in nine service organizations. Important new results are that encounter-based innovation requires mutual empathy between employees and customers, employees investing stubbornness and time can be a driver for innovation, and several layers of management can be a barrier. In the field experiments three new factors for encounter-based innovation were found: translation, multitasking, and hyper-professionalism. The two first are drivers; the third a barrier. A model that summarizes the findings is presented.     

Firm Size and Innovation in European Manufacturing

The paper investigates the differences between small, medium-sized and large firms regarding their performance in the introduction of new products and processes. After a review of the relevant literature, two models are proposed and tested in search for different business strategies and innovation inputs connected to product and process innovations. The empirical analysis uses innovation survey (CIS 2) data at the industry level for 22 manufacturing sectors, broken down in three firm size classes, for eight European countries. Special attention is devoted to tackling the issues of possible endogeneity of the regressors and of unobserved sectoral heterogeneity. The results – strengthening the findings of previous studies – show that product and process innovations, though having some complementarities, are associated to different innovative inputs and strategies pursued by firms. Systematic differences also emerge between the behaviour of large firms and SMEs.      

Exposure to workplace bullying and negative gossip behaviors: Buffering roles of personal and contextual resources

This study adds to business ethics research by investigating how employees' exposure to workplace bullying might spur their negative gossip behaviors, as well as how this effect might be buffered by their access to two personal resources (religiosity and innovation propensity) and two contextual resources (work meaningfulness and trust in top management). Survey data collected among Canadian-based employees who work in the religious sector reveal that workplace bullying increases the likelihood that they spread negative rumors about other organizational members, but this effect is weaker when employees (1) can draw from their religious faith, (2) are motivated to generate innovative ideas, (3) derive meaning from their work, and (4) have confidence in the trustworthiness of top management. For management scholars and practitioners, this study thus pinpoints different resources that diminish the risk that workplace bullying infuses work environments with even more negative energy, as might occur if bullying spills over into additional, negative gossip behaviors.     

On the Relationship Between Acquisitions, Divestitures and Innovations: An Explorative Study

Firms increasingly use acquisitions and divestitures to acquire strategic assets such as technological know-how and technological capabilities that can contribute to their innovation potential. This study investigates whether firms combining acquisitions and divestitures have been more innovative than those that did not. It uses an empirical model to examine the relationship between acquisitions and/or divestitures, on the one hand, and the probability of firms to produce innovations, on the other hand. Innovations are distinguished according to products and/or processes that are “new to the firm” as a proxy for all innovations including imitations and those that are “new to the market” which is a proxy for so-called real innovations, excluding imitations. In order to test the model a data set is used that includes 2381 firms and was derived from the Dutch Community Innovation Survey (CIS-2) survey for the years 1994–1996. The estimation results show that divestitures in the services industry affect the probability to innovate positively in case of innovations that are “new to the firm”. In the manufacturing industry, a stable and positive correlation was found between acquisitions and/or divestitures on the hand, and real innovation activities of firms on the other hand.     

An innovation perspective on Chinese retailers' competitive advantage

Given the emergence of strong local retail firms in China over the last two decades, this paper aims to explore their competence enhancement and capability building process from the innovation perspective. Innovative measures on retail format, activity and governance dimensions of three leading local retailers in China are investigated using an in-depth case study approach. After each case is studied on the three dimensions, a cross-case analysis is conducted using thematic analysis to examine their innovative strategies and to explore their sources of innovation. The three cases share notable similarities in their strategies that are in sharp contrast to those of foreign retailers. On the retail format dimension, they have all achieved differentiation by formulating niche strategies and succeeded in creating a strong reputation among customers and retaining the same. On the retailing activities dimension, they have all developed a profit-making model through unique supply chain management and stressed construction of logistics centres and operational standardisation. On the governance dimension, they have established an efficient incentive and reward mechanism to motivate employees and encourage innovative practice. They have also built long-term collaborative relationships with their suppliers. Based on these three cases, it is also found that local embeddedness, latecomers' advantages, business agility and a risk taking entrepreneurial mentality are the crucial factors behind the generation of efficient innovations of China's local retailers. With these findings, this paper has extended and enriched existing knowledge on latecomers' catch up and service innovation. It has constructed an analytical framework for retail innovation by building on relevant attempts in the existing literature. A theoretical framework that explains how indigenous Chinese retailers have managed to successfully compete with foreign retailers in China using innovative strategies has also been established based on empirical data.     

包容型领导对员工创新行为的影响：基于组织和谐的中介作用及组织创新氛围的调节作用

员工创新行为是组织塑造竞争优势的重要环节。尽管已有研究表明领导风格能够对员工创新行为产生显著影响,但目前对于二者之间的作用机制和边界条件却知之甚少。文章基于国内新能源行业422名在职人员的有效调查问卷数据,构建并检验一个被调节的中介效应模型。实证研究结果表明：包容型领导对员工创新行为具有显著正向影响;组织和谐能够在包容型领导与员工创新行为关系中起中介作用;组织创新氛围在包容型领导和组织和谐之间起着正向的调节作用,组织创新氛围越强,包容型领导对组织和谐的影响程度随之增强。文章解释了包容型领导对员工创新行为的作用机理,不仅打开了二者之间的“黑箱”,也为员工在组织中如何有效增强创新行为提供了管理启示和对策建议。     

Training for creativity and innovation in small enterprises in Ethiopia

Policy makers recognize the role of small businesses in bringing about economic growth and reducing or eliminating poverty, and training can contribute significantly to this process. The present study adds to the small firm literature by examining whether training encourages small firms to be more creative and innovative. It does so by investigating the extent of creative and innovative activities in small enterprises (SEs) that have undertaken training with support from the Ethiopian technical and vocational education and training system. SEs for the purpose of the study are businesses with fewer than 30 employees. The term includes micro‐enterprises, which are defined in Ethiopia as having fewer than six employees. Quantitative methodology was used to compare and contrast these enterprises with similar enterprises which had not had training support. Data were collected from 146 randomly selected small firms by means of interviews with owners and employees. Interviews were also conducted with technical, vocational education and training experts. The study examined five predictors of creativity and innovation activities that training support would be expected to encourage and found significant differences in two of them: creative thinking and motivational attributes. Differences in other creativity and innovation variables, however, were not significant. The researchers conclude that education and training for creativity and innovation should be prioritized to enhance the performance of small firms, in particular by increasing their expertise, improving their motivation and ability to surmount challenges and developing their creative thinking in the search for new business ideas.     

Consumer Innovativeness Among Street Vendors in Mexico City

Abstract

This study relates innovative consumer behavior to informal economic activity within the urban lower middle class of one of the world's major emerging markets, with focus on product innovations in the areas of retail and consumer goods and services. of prime interest are the innovation adoption habits of street vendors, a group hypothesized to possess greater innovative tendency than those of similar social background employed as formal sector wage earners. Results indicate that street vendors report higher income and lower levels of education than their formal sector neighbors and these two groups show distinct product acquisition/patronage patterns, as well. However, the street vendors do not always demonstrate more innovative behavior, as adoption appears product specific.     

General Purpose Technologies and local knowledge accumulation — A study on MNC subunits and local innovation centers

This research looks into the innovative activities of subunits of large non-U.S firms in the U.S from 1969 to 1995, suggesting that the innovations in the subunits of multinational corporations are closely linked to their specializations in General Purpose Technologies (GPTs). GPTs enable recombining knowledge from different domains on an international scale, and that the specialization of innovations in GPT fields within a subunit is positively associated with the innovative capacity at large, along with the degree of technological diversification of that specific subunit. As firms expand geographically to tap into local innovation centers to develop new growth alternatives, specialization of GPTs in these firms actually facilitates further geographical dispersion of innovative activities across locations. Lastly, additional specializations of innovations in GPT fields within the host innovation centers does help in attracting innovation activities of firms from a wider range of industries.     

共享经济下高校大学生创新创业人才培养保障体系研究

以创新创业教育为导向的高等教育改革成为当前高等教育改革的重要任务。基于共享经济理论指导,论文构建高校大学生创新创业人才培养保障体系的框架;从组织、制度、平台、资源保障四个方面分析创新创业人才培养保障体系的构成要素。最后,分析了高校创新创业人才培养保障体系的利益共享机制、资源整合机制和分工协作机制。     

Firm growth and innovation

In recent years, there has been an increase in empirical and theoretical work that addresses the role of innovation as one of the main sources of firm growth. The purpose of this special issue is to strengthen the role played by innovation as a determinant of firm growth. Despite the emergence of a vast empirical literature on whether innovative firms grow more quickly in terms of sales and employees, a number of crucial questions and answers remain. While a large number of applied papers observe a positive link between innovation and firm growth, the complexity of R&D activities, together with the diversity of innovation strategies and the multiplicity of growth modes, requires a multidimensional approach to examine the contribution of innovations on firm growth. To shed light on the link between firm’ growth and innovation sources, we organized a meeting of leading scholars of firm’ growth and innovation. The papers of this special issue were presented at the workshop on ‘Firm growth and innovation’ held on 28 and 29 June, 2012, in Tarragona, Spain. The papers that compose this special issue deal in depth with innovation activity, firm growth and the interaction between firm growth and innovation.     

首位晋升制与末位淘汰制的创新激励差异分析

员工在首位晋升制和末位淘汰制两种锦标激励制度下受到的创新激励程度存在较大差异。在首位晋升制中,员工为了获得尽可能高的产出,偏好于选择高风险行为,因而会积极创新;而在末位淘汰制中,员工为了避免低水平产出,偏好于选择低风险行为,因而会回避创新。结果,首位晋升制会形成创新文化,而末位淘汰制会形成保守文化。     

The Impact of Leadership Longevity on Innovation in a Religious Organization

Navigating organizations through a chang- ing environment is central to leadership. Thus, innovativeness has proven to be critical to the process of achieving strategic competitiveness (Yukl, Leadership in Organizations, 1998). This skill is particularly needed when the firm is confronted with the unique challenges of a religious organization. The existence of innovation and the depen- dencies that encourage or restrict its existence in this environment are largely unknown. Utilizing a sample of 250 religious organizations in five geographical areas this research explores the impact of the leader tenure on the degree of organizational innovation. An analysis of variance for innovative strategy use across the three tenure groups was significant, F (2, 247) = 6.08, p < 0.01, which indicated innovation differences across the three levels of leader tenure. Post hoc analysis indicated that the low tenure leadership group was associated with lower levels of innovation than either of the other groups. Detailed findings are presented and the managerial implications and suggestions are provided. This research has strong implications for implementation of leadership development and strategic management of the increasing number of socially conscious organizations and organizations with large volunteer components.     

Digital innovation: An essence for Industry 4.0

The goal of this paper is to explain why digital innovation is so important in business organizations in order to survive in Industry 4.0. The study helps to understand the new era of Industry 4.0 and the importance of introducing digital innovation into organizations. A systematic review of the literature and studies on Industry 4.0 and digital innovation were synthesized to find answers to the research questions. To improve their manufacturing industry, organizations have implemented digital technologies such as augmented reality, robotic sensing, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, cyber physical systems, and remote sensing technologies. These technologies focused on automating logistics and supply chain systems, improving manufacturing system performance, and simplifying automated production systems. Because digital innovations save time and energy, employees can devote more time and energy to creative and innovative activities. Organizations should plan to implement digital technology in order to keep the environment healthy and sustainable while meeting the demands of customers, consumers, and the Industry 4.0 dimension.     

Bracing for MNC competition through innovative HRM practices: The way ahead for Indian firms

With increasing globalization, firms are entering a dynamic world of international business that is marked by liberalization of economic policies in a large number of emerging economies like India. To face the challenge of increasing competition that has resulted from liberalization, Indian organizations have initiated adoption of innovative human resource management practices both critically and constructively to foster creativity and innovation among employees. With the help of 11 in‐depth case studies, this article tries to understand how innovative HRM practices are being adopted by Indian firms to brace for competition in the postliberalization scenario. © 2006 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.