The creativity model of age and innovation with IT: why older users are less innovative and what to do about it

Abstract

ABSTRACT To realise the full potential of their information technology (IT) infrastructure, successful firms encourage users to innovate with IT. However, older users are much less innovative with IT than younger ones. This situation is alarming because the workforce is ageing rapidly at the very same time as organisational technologies are proliferating. Using the concepts of mediation and moderation, the present investigation proposes the creativity model of age and innovation with IT. This model postulates that the age differences in user innovation are due to age-related changes in the perceived ability to be creative with IT. It also postulates that the negative effect of age on user innovation can be mitigated by three factors: job control, IT support, and user enjoyment. Two studies were conducted to test the model. The first one was a large-scale survey of IT users who work with various technologies, and the second one was a more specific survey of knowledge workers who use electronic knowledge repositories. The results largely support the model. Thus the model provides a well-founded theoretical framework, not only for explaining why older users are less innovative with IT, but also for determining what managers and systems designers should do about it.