The Impact of Emotional Experiences of Innovation Champions on Innovation Outcomes

Christina Swart-Opperman,Babar Dharani,Kurt April

doi:10.24840/2183-0606_009.004_0006

Abstract

This article aims to explore the impact of emotions and behaviours of innovation champions on organisation innovation outcomes. Our research suggests that champions do not necessarily contribute to successful outcomes. This could be ascribed to the fact that the role of the innovation champion is often oversimplified, while the context and specific emotional experiences of the champion impact champion behaviour. Therefore, for the purposes of this article, we considered the innovation champion as an internal role player, soliciting support for innovation and thereby influencing outcomes. The study reanalyses the interview data of twenty innovation champions from six African countries within the financial services industry. The article provides additional insights into the complexities associated with ‘championing’, linked to the champion’s own emotional experiences, discretionary and citizenship behaviours. The study reveals that, although there is an increased awareness of the factors triggering champion behaviours, the description of the fluid role of the champion remains a challenge. The role of the innovation champion and the question whether such roles are over- or underrated will thus continue to receive attention in literature.  Keywords: innovation champion, champion identity, harmful champion behaviour, champion emotional experience, champion role, champion behaviour 

Highlights

Innovation outcomes are influenced by different antecedents within the external and internal environments of organisations; the requirements for the successful adoption and implementation of innovation projects remain a much-debated issue in the research literature
Swart-Opperman, Dharani, April ranging from those employees who are formally assigned the administrative task for innovation projects, those ‘bred’ by senior management (Howell, 2005), or human resources management practices (De Leede & Looise, 2005), those naturally intrapreneurial who informally innovate (Curtis et al, 2020), to members of senior leadership teams who formally lead innovation in the organization (Papadakis & Bourantas, 1998)
We examined emotional experiences of innovation champions when role acting, using the affect theory of social exchange (Lawler, 2018), the affective events theory (Weiss and Cropanzano, 1996) as well as the multi-level model of emotions (Ashkanasy and Ashton-James, 2005) to contribute a novel dimension to the conceptual framework (Shea, 2021)

Summary

Introduction

Innovation outcomes are influenced by different antecedents within the external and internal environments of organisations; the requirements for the successful adoption and implementation of innovation projects remain a much-debated issue in the research literature. Definitions range from organisations that lead innovation for an industry (Østergaard, 2019) to the employees within an innovation team (Barnhill et al, 2021) or an organization. Swart-Opperman, Dharani, April ranging from those employees who are formally assigned the administrative task for innovation projects, those ‘bred’ by senior management (Howell, 2005), or human resources management practices (De Leede & Looise, 2005), those naturally intrapreneurial who informally innovate (Curtis et al, 2020), to members of senior leadership teams who formally lead innovation in the organization (Papadakis & Bourantas, 1998). We considered the innovation champion as an internal role player, soliciting support for innovation and thereby influencing outcomes for our study Such champions have the potential to directly impact innovation projects by providing ideas, demonstrating enthusiasm, soliciting support, forming and motivating a team, mobilising resources, and protecting projects from termination (Howell et al, 2005; Markham, 2013)

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