Engagement In Innovative Activities Research Articles

How Individual Factors Shape Innovative Work Behavior in Malaysian HEIs: The Role of Innovation Capability, Knowledge Sharing and Psychological Empowerment

This study investigates the factors driving academics' innovative work behavior (IWB) in Malaysian Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), focusing on individual innovation capability, psychological empowerment, and knowledge sharing. The respondents comprised 382 academics from 24 Malaysian universities listed in the QS World Ranking 2023, selected through convenience sampling. Data were collected via a Google Form questionnaire distributed by email. The descriptive analysis assessed individual innovation capabilities, psychological empowerment, and knowledge-sharing levels, and their impact on IWB. The findings indicate high engagement in innovative activities, with academics demonstrating strong innovative capabilities, a sense of empowerment, and active knowledge-sharing practices. These individual factors significantly contribute to fostering IWB, highlighting the importance of continuous professional development, supportive institutional environments, and collaborative cultures in promoting innovation within HEIs. This study provides valuable insights for policymakers and university administrators to enhance the innovative potential of academics, ultimately contributing to the advancement of knowledge and improvement of educational practices in Malaysian HEIs. Future research should explore longitudinal effects and potential moderating factors to further understand innovative work behavior dynamics in academic settings.

Adversity breeds ingenuity: exploring the enduring effect of historical Yellow River flooding on family firm innovation

ABSTRACT Historical natural disasters could leave deep imprint on family firms’ innovation trajectory. Drawing upon the well-established link between geographic characteristics, institutions and innovation dynamics, this study investigates the effect of historical natural disasters on family firm innovation, focusing specifically on the impact of the historical Yellow River flooding. By leveraging the both sides of the Yellow River floodplain areas (YRFA) and employing the regression discontinuity design (RDD), we find compelling evidence that the historical Yellow River flooding significantly promotes family firm innovation in the affected areas. Meanwhile, the mechanism shows that the Yellow River flooding increases family firms’ risk-taking propensity and fosters the concentration of ownership, thereby leading to a higher engagement in innovative activities. Furthermore, we demonstrate that the positive impact of the YRFA on family firm innovation is mainly attributed to the cumulative effects of the historical flood, rather than individual flood events. Overall, this study underscores the enduring historical legacy that shape the dynamics of family firm innovation.

The drivers of cooperation for innovation and the role of environmental orientation

AbstractFirm innovation is a complex and multidimensional process that is affected by internal and external factors. Companies and governments have traditionally tried to promote in‐house innovation by promoting research and development investment. In an economy characterized by a large percentage of small‐ and medium‐sized enterprises and continuous change toward digital and green transition, many companies struggle to innovate because of their lack of resources, knowledge, or capabilities. In this context, the external links and networks that materialize through active engagement in innovation activities with market and institutional agents are key, and analyzing cooperation for innovation is essential to obtain an overview to promote innovation. This study contributes to the understanding of (1) the drivers in innovative companies that lead to cooperation with external agents for innovation; (2) the relative importance of these drivers for cooperation; (3) the extent to which the eco‐innovation orientation of a company affects its engagement in collaborations with other stakeholders; and (4) an understanding of the differences in the cooperation drivers according to the type of collaborator (institutional, market, or both). Using data from the Spanish Technological Innovation Panel and machine‐learning techniques, we confirm the importance of internal and external factors, namely public financing, the environmental and social orientation of innovation, and the commitment to innovation. This research also reveals the asymmetric impact of many of the cooperation drivers, and that company cooperation with both market and institutional agents leads to higher innovation performance. The findings have important implications for policymakers and practitioners.

A semi-nonparametric extended ordered probit model with selection for financial barrier perception

In order to contribute to the literature concerning the difficulties faced by innovative firms in terms of financing, this paper aims to investigate the perception levels of financial barriers according to their innovation intensity and analyzes determinants of financial barriers for a developing country for the most recent years. A semi-nonparametric extended ordered probit model with selection is used to establish the determinants of perception of financial barriers by employing the Business Enterprise and Environment Survey, BEEPS 2013 and BEEPS 2019. According to the findings, when there is an engagement in innovation activities, then firms are more likely to assess financial barriers as important. It is believed that these results have important implications for developing countries.

The influence of informal and foreign competition on innovation: does size matter

This study examines whether micro or large firms in emerging economies produce innovation as a response to threats from informal and foreign competitors. This research focuses on firm size because it captures micro and large firms' resource similarity and market commonality with informal and foreign competitors. Specifically, this study theorises how threats from informal and foreign competitors influence emerging economy firms' engagement in innovation activities depending on firm size, such as micro and large firms. Results from the empirical analyses, with survey data of a large sample of firms located across Eastern Europe and Central Asia, provide support to hypotheses.

Do CEO's early-life marketization experiences affect the innovation behavior of SMEs?

We investigate the relationship between chief executive officers’ (CEOs) early-life exposure to marketization transition and the research and development (R&D) intensity of Chinese small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). We find that there is a significant positive relationship between the early-life transition experiences of CEOs and the R&D intensity of SMEs. CEOs who have experienced higher stages of marketization transition are significantly more likely to engage in proactive innovation activities. The means of the potential R&D intensity distributions are increasing in the treatment level, although this increasing trend is not always significant. Overall, the results confirm the view that experiencing a transition in early-life significantly facilitates CEOs’ engagement in innovation activities.

The Art of Making Workplace Innovative: Conceptual Integration of Leader-Member Exchange, Workplace Innovation and Employee Creativity

An increased engagement in innovative activities has become an essential requirement for modern ventures to respond to the threats and opportunities they face. Due to increased globalisation and digitalisation, SME ventures are currently looking for ways to cultivate innovation at different levels such as individual, team and organisational levels to remain competitive. SME ventures need to focus on employee creativity in order to stimulate innovation at the individual level. Moreover, a favourable working environment is required for such cultivation. This short commentary aims to conduct an extant literature review proposing that Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) impacts employee creativity and workplace innovation mediates the relationship between them. Based on the social exchange theory, the literature on LMX, employee creativity, and workplace innovation is reviewed. This study's conceptual model opens new avenues for empirical studies and may help leaders cultivate innovation for improved organisational performance. The current study suggests that SME ventures should implement better LMX practices and better interaction with employees to cultivate ideas aimed to improve employee creativity.

Increasing alertness to new opportunities: the influence of positive affect and implications for innovation

Understanding how entrepreneurs’ positive affect influences firm innovation through the cognitive processes (e.g., entrepreneurial alertness to business opportunities) is important because emotions often impact evaluations and judgments of opportunities and (subsequent) firm engagement in innovative activities. Using data involving Iranian entrepreneurs, we find that (1) Tang, Kacmar, and Busenitz’s (2012) three alertness components unfold sequentially (i.e., information scanning and search leads to information association and connection which in turn leads to opportunity evaluation and judgment); (2) positive affect has a positive impact on all three alertness dimensions; and (3) evaluation and judgment impacts firm incremental innovation positively. Implications and future research directions are discussed.

Intrapreneurship and absorptive capacities: The dynamic effect of labor mobility

While the importance of absorptive capacities for the engagement in innovative activities has been addressed in numerous studies, the drivers remain an open question. As absorptive capacities are indispensably linked to an individual's human capital, the management of these capacities needs to consider the mobility of individuals. We focus on absorptive capacities as an operationalization and essential part of firms' intrapreneurial capabilities that enable firms to both understand and exploit existing internal and external knowledge and generate and implement new ideas to enhance competitiveness. Considering both the labor stock and mobility on a regional and firm level, our results suggest that the firm/regional labor stock and the firm/regional labor mobility on their own do not have a positive effect on firms' absorptive capacities. Rather, it is the interaction of the firm and regional labor stock and especially firm and regional labor mobility that positively influence firms' absorptive capacities, indicating that labor mobility may only have positive effects if fluid labor markets facilitate adequate matches between employees and employers. We conclude by positing an agenda for future research and discussing implications for both firm managers as well as policymakers.

Structural characteristics and organizational determinants as obstacles to innovation in small developing countries

This paper aims to analyse the influence of structural characteristics and organizational determinants on the perception of obstacles to innovation in small developing countries. The study focuses on the interaction between these specific elements with important implications for both innovation policy and innovation management in the context of small emerging economies, which are generally characterized by financial and market constraints, weak institutional framework and low innovation performance. The empirical analysis is based on panel data of 5447 Ecuadorian firms from the National Survey of Innovation Activities for the periods 2009–2011 and 2012–2014. In contrast with the existing literature, which often analyses separately the influence of variables such as firm size or engagement in innovation activities on obstacles to innovation, this paper uses a nonlinear probability model to a better understanding of the interaction between both variables. In general, results show a greater perception of the obstacles as the size of the company decreases, across all the different levels of innovation activity. This result is observed for all obstacles to innovation, but is especially clear and straightforward for knowledge and economic barriers. When considering small firms, interaction between firm size and engagement in innovation activities reveals the existence of a learning effect based on one's own innovation effort and experience, which contributes to overcoming difficulties. These results suggest that actions focused on small organizational structures that aim to improve access to new sources of knowledge and optimise the availability and use of economic resources can contribute to channelling this innovation proactivity towards concrete innovations.

Znaczenie relacji z klientami w działalności innowacyjnej przedsiębiorstw hotelarskich

Przedsiębiorstwa, nawet te najmniejsze, znajdują się obecnie pod silną presją wdrażania innowacji, postrzeganych jako jeden z kluczowych czynników funkcjonowania i rozwoju firmy. Ze względu na immanentne cechy przedsiębiorstw hotelarskich wiedza pochodząca z relacji z klientami może odgrywać istotną rolę w ich działalności innowacyjnej. Artykuł ma na celu identyfikację znaczenia relacji z klientami w działalności innowacyjnej przedsiębiorstw hotelarskich w Polsce. Przybliżono w nim pojęcie innowacji pochodzących od klienta (User-Driven Innovation), a także zaprezentowano aktualny stan badań nad tym zagadnieniem w odniesieniu do podmiotów gospodarki turystycznej, a szczególnie przedsiębiorstw hotelarskich. Kluczową część artykułu stanowią wyniki badania empirycznego prowadzonego w 400 losowo wybranych hotelach w Polsce. Z badania wynika, że relacje z klientami mają istotne znaczenie w działalności innowacyjnej przedsiębiorstw. Dodatkowo przedstawione zostały podstawowe źródła innowacji, a także sposoby zaangażowania klientów w działalność innowacyjną. Z badania wynika, że ważną rolę w pozyskiwaniu i wykorzystaniu wiedzy pochodzącej od klientów odgrywają pracownicy, którzy bezpośrednio kontaktują się z gośćmi. Ponadto ustalono, że polskie hotele są jeszcze na wczesnym etapie procesu adaptacji koncepcji innowacji pochodzących od klienta. Wykorzystanie wiedzy od klienta w działalności innowacyjnej wymaga intensyfikacji działań w zakresie zarządzania wiedzą i zarządzania kadrami.

RESULTS OF MONITORING INNOVATIVE ACTIVITY OF TEACHERS OF HIGHER EDUCATION

The article discusses the need of increase of innovative activity of University teachers. The relevance of the problem is due to paradigmatic processes of modernization of Russian system of higher education. Summarizes the experimental work to test the effectiveness of the developed methods of engagement in innovative activities of high school teachers. The author describes the experience of monitoring of innovative activity of teachers of Minin University. The results of monitoring of innovation activity according to three criteria: the publication activity of the lecturer position in the individual ranking of scientific and pedagogical workers, satisfaction with the innovative environment of the University. Research of innovative activity of teachers is carried out at three levels: low, medium and high. Levels is described through the description of the indicators for each indicator.

The More, the Merrier: Why and How Employee-Driven Eco-Innovation Enhances Environmental and Competitive Advantage

Innovative solutions are often conjured as a key factor for companies to come closer to the goal of ecological sustainability. Furthermore, proactive eco-innovation activities can encompass competitive advantages. Companies are therefore well advised to tap any available source of innovation. However, although employees’ innovative capacity has often been described, to date, their manifold potentials for eco-innovation processes have hardly been examined in detail. The overarching research questions guiding this conceptual paper are why and how employee participation in eco-innovation processes can entail environmental and competitive advantages for companies. The authors introduce the concept of employee-driven eco-innovation (EDEI), defined here as ordinary employees’ voluntary engagement in innovation activities within an organizational context that, intentionally or not, lead to environmental improvements. This paper complements previous literature on employee-driven innovation (EDI) by applying it to the specific case of eco-innovation. In this context, employees’ comprehensive environmental competences resulting from “tacit knowledge”, “private consumer experience” and “green identity” are taken into account. In addition, we delineate critical intra-organizational factors for EDEI activities and illustrate green employees’ specific requirements in this regard.

Exploring HRM Meta‐Features that Foster Employees' Innovative Work Behaviour in Times of Increasing Work–Life Conflict

Today, employees' innovative work behaviour (IWB) is critical for companies' success. However, employees increasingly experience work–life conflict (WLC) which negatively influences performance at work. Human resource management (HRM) has the potential to foster employees' engagement in innovative activities and to reduce tensions between work and private life simultaneously. Our paper aims to advance understanding under which conditions these relations occur by exploring HRM meta‐features. These are defined as overall characteristics of an HR system helping companies to communicate the content of HR practices in a way that leads to desired interpretations by employees. Using a qualitative, interview study approach, we find that HRM contributes to IWB and diminishes feelings of WLC mainly through the four meta‐features ‘individual orientation’, ‘discretion orientation’, ‘effort orientation’ and ‘expectancy orientation’. We link our findings to extant literature and provide suggestions for managers how these meta‐features can be put into organizational practice.

The Role of Human Capital in Lowering the Barriers to Engaging in Innovation: Evidence from the Spanish Innovation Survey

This paper focuses on the role of human capital in reducing the barriers to firms' engagement in innovation activities. The paper distinguishes between firms facing barriers that stop them from engaging in any innovation activity, and firms that face impediments in the course of their innovation activity. We investigate whether human capital has a particularly strong impact in relation to lowering barriers among the former group of firms, since a strong skill base is likely to compensate for lack of experience in innovation-related activities or the complementary assets needed for innovation. We draw on four waves of the Spanish Innovation Survey and examine the impact of human capital on three types of obstacles to innovation: cost, knowledge and market barriers. We find that human capital has a significant impact on reducing the barriers to innovation represented by knowledge shortages and market uncertainties.