Innovative Behavior

Abstract

The value of innovation for organizational success is widely accepted. Innovative behavior refers to the introduction and application of new ideas, products, processes, and procedures to a person’s work role, work unit, or organization. Innovative behavior can be carried out both by an individual organizational member or groups of individuals within an organization. It is a broader concept than creativity and encompasses a variety of behaviors involved in the generation, promotion, and implementation of new ideas. Management research on innovative behavior focuses on the human aspect, rather than the technical aspect, of innovation. With its focus on human behaviors and processes, this body of work applies theories from disciplines such as psychology and sociology to understand situations and factors that influence the innovative behavior of individual employees and groups of employees in the organizational setting. Different theoretical perspectives are reflected in this literature and can be evaluated to understand the vantage points through which management scholars study innovative behavior. A great amount of research has been focused on identifying factors that may encourage and enable employees to demonstrate innovative behavior at work. Frequently studied topics include individual characteristics, motivation, and affect, as well as contextual antecedents such as organizational culture, job characteristics, leadership, and social relationships. Innovative behavior can also occur at the group level, which led to a stream of research on team innovation. Studies on team innovation shed light on innovative behaviors and processes that are unique to the team environment. Moreover, studying innovative behavior cross-culturally provides critical knowledge in a global economy and yet, at the same time, presents its own challenges. In this bibliography, we review major research studies on each of these important issues.