The Roles of Individual Differences and Innovation Properties in Multiple Forms of Innovation Implementation

Abstract

We departed from research strategies suggested in prior studies in which binary outcomes of implementation, such as use or acceptance and nonuse or resistance, have been used, and we proposed the examination of diverse patterns of implementation behavior, including mechanical implementation, learning, reinvention, and mutual adaptation. These implementation patterns can be explained by innovation-related individual differences, innovation properties, and their interactions. We collected longitudinal data from 141 employees of a large steel company in Korea. Results showed that when employees participated in innovation-related training and when the innovation was compatible with the company's existing values and practices, the employees implemented the innovation as designed. In contrast, when employees had sufficient experience with the innovation and perceived it as flexible and adaptable to the local needs, they reinvented the innovation by customizing it to the local context. Employees' innovation competence was positively related to high-fidelity implementation only when compatibility of the innovation was high and flexibility of the innovation was low.