Individual Innovation Research Articles

Open innovation starts from home: the potentials of enterprise social media (ESM) in nurturing employee innovation

PurposeEnterprise social media (ESM) applications offer new opportunities for organizations to mobilize employees for open innovation, by promoting innovation beyond traditional R&D functions. Despite the popularity and success of these applications, current research has yet to fully explore the potential of ESM applications as a driver of employee-driven innovation, specifically through advancements in innovation culture. To fill this gap, this study proposes a theoretical framework that explains the role of ESM applications in facilitating employee innovation.Design/methodology/approach The authors administered a cross-sectional survey to collect data from professionals who use ESM applications regularly at work. Following a pilot study and instrument refinement, the authors conducted a field study to test measurement and the structural model by using the partial least square-structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) method.FindingsThe findings of this study support the validity of the proposed theoretical model. First, the results confirmed the three antecedents of ESM use for innovation: perceived innovation possibilities enabled by ESM technology, the expected value of ESM use for innovation and organizational support for using ESM applications for innovation. Next, the results confirmed the importance of ESM use in encouraging individual innovation productivity in terms of product/service innovation, process innovation and social innovation. Finally, the results corroborated the mediating role of risk-taking and knowledge-sharing culture in the use of ESM to increase innovation productivity.Originality/valueThe findings presented here have implications for theory and practices that would concern fostering a supportive environment and building an organizational culture that promotes employees' innovation behavior (internal open innovation) by using social technologies.

Research on the Influencing Factors of User Acceptance of Blockchain Application in Government Services under TOE Framework

With the enhancement of information technology, the traditional government service model is also facing transformation and upgrading. Blockchain technology can help government services achieve digital transformation due to its advantages of centralization, traceability, and non-tamperability. Based on the TOE framework, this paper constructs a model of factors influencing the user acceptance of blockchain applications in government services. Through regression analysis of sample data, the results show that relative advantage, information quality, trend pressure, and individual innovativeness all have significant effects on user acceptance. Finally, the limitations of the study and future research development are pointed out in order to provide guidelines for the construction of government services.

The Prediction Power of Pre-Service Classroom Teachers’ Individual Innovativeness Characteristics on Entrepreneurship Skills

Changes in science and technology and related developments,which have led to the formation of information societies, make significant contributions to every stage of the education process. Entrepreneurship is a 21stcentury skill expected from individuals in the information society; it is essential in increasing societies’ development level. In this sense, raising individuals possessing “entrepreneurship” skills, which are included in both life skills and 21st-century skills, is one of the common goals of all countries. The innovativeness level of the individuals, who are at the center of innovation and system changes, and their ability to accept it are expressed as individual innovativeness. To give the characteristics covered by the entrepreneurship skill included in the primary school curriculum to the students in our schools, it is necessary first to equip the pre-service teachers and teachers with this skill and ensure that they gain knowledge and experience on this issue. This study examines the effect of primary school pre-service classroom teachers’ innovativeness characteristics on their entrepreneurial skills. The study was designed using the quantitative research method. 420 pre-service teachers from a university’s classroom teaching program in Central Anatolia participated in the research. Missing or empty forms were excluded from the study, and the data of 358 volunteer pre-service classroom teachers were used. The “individual innovativeness scale” adapted to Turkish by Kılıçer and Odabaşı (2010) and the “entrepreneurship” scale developed for pre-service teachers by Deveci and Çepni (2015) were used to collect the data. Simple linear regression was used to reveal the causality between variables. Resistance to change, opinion leadership, openness to experience, and risk-taking were analyzed separately as innovativeness characteristics, concluding that the prediction power of resistance to change is minimal, while other characteristics predicted entrepreneurship significantly. Overall, it was concluded that individual innovativeness characteristics could explain entrepreneurship.

Automation Design and Organization Innovation of Manufacturing Enterprises Based on the Internet of Things

The Internet of Things manufacturing technology is an important symbol for measuring the level of a country’s scientific and technological development. Enterprises that apply the Internet of Things manufacturing technology represent the level of a country’s industrial development to a large extent. However, the introduction of IoT manufacturing technology will not automatically generate benefits. It needs to be matched with a suitable organizational structure to maximize the advantages of IoT manufacturing technology. The enterprise organization structure has always been the focus of enterprise organization research and management research. From the linear system to the network organization, the innovation of enterprise organizational structure has never stopped. Therefore, the research on the organizational structure innovation of IoT manufacturing technology enterprises has strong theoretical and practical significance. This study conducted an empirical study on the impact of organizational innovation climate and individual innovation behavior on organizational structure innovation in IoT manufacturing technology enterprises in the form of a questionnaire survey. The structural equation model of organizational innovation climate and personal innovation behavior is proposed, the data and questionnaires are statistically and factorially analyzed by software such as SPSS 18.0 and AMOS 7.0, and the hypothesized structural equation model is verified.

Insights into the Individual Innovation Process in the 2020s: Updating Prevalent Understanding

This paper examines individuals' experiences of their innovation process. The aim is to gain deeper insight into the features of individual innovation and thereby update the prevailing theoretical understanding of the concept of individual innovation process. To achieve this, the paper uses a qualitative single case study approach. A systematic data-driven analysis of 34 semi-structured interviews - conducted in an agile product development environment - showed that at the team member level, the individual innovation process consists of six activities: identifying needs, managing constraints, developing solutions, testing, evaluating, and implementing. The paper extends previous understanding by zooming in on the individual experience and highlights the previously unidentified role of individual agency in the innovation process. The study contributes to innovation and management literatures by challenging the current understanding of how individuals innovate, and how this process can be managed.

Do smallholder farmers belong to the same adopter category? An assessment of smallholder farmers innovation adopter categories in Ghana

More often than not, good innovations introduced to farmers failed to be adopted or diffused among them, simply because the complexities and the variations in farmers' innovation adoption are not well explore. This study aims to analyse the innovation adopter categories that smallholder farmers belong to in Ghana and how their socioeconomic attributes influence their innovativeness. A survey was employed to gather information from smallholder farmers in Ghana. The data obtained from the survey were analysed using the SPSS version 22 and the Individual Innovativeness (II) scales. The hypotheses were tested using the Logistic regression model. The results indicated a large number (36.6%) of the smallholder farmers belong to the late majority of the innovation adopter category. Also, more than three-quarters of the farmers were classified as low innovators. Factors such as farmer education and gender were found to be insignificant to their innovativeness, while other prominent factors were significant to farmers' innovativeness. The study also made a novel revelation on Roger's innovation adopter categorisation values. The study concluded that smallholder farmers in the study area do not belong to a homogenous innovation adopter category. Also, educated farmers without income are less innovative. It was therefore recommended that stakeholders introducing new technologies to smallholder farmers should develop attractive marketing packages combined with videos and pictures to educate farmers on the new products, to speed up adoption.

Let’s Get Personal: How CEO Personality Effects Organizational Innovation via Corporate Venturing

We develop theory to explain the relationship between CEO personality and inter- and intraorganizational learning mechanisms with a focus on corporate venture capital (CVC). We provide an integrated perspective and consider CVC investments as individual innovation practice and relative to research and development (R&D) efforts. Using a novel linguistic tool to measure the personality traits of 1,360 CEOs of S&P 500 firms, we find that CEO consciousness and CEO neuroticism are negatively, and CEO openness positively associated with CVC engagement. Regarding the trade-off decision between inter- and intraorganizational learning mechanisms, we find that CEO consciousness and CEO openness each have a positive effect on CVC relative to R&D. Our results extend upper echelons research by not only highlighting the importance of CEO personality in driving organizational innovation, but also indicating how CEO personality either enhances or inhibits interorganizational learning in both absolute and relative terms.

Innovation Solution Sets: Components, Combinations, and Drivers in Low-Middle Income Settings

Innovation is crucial for improving health outcomes in low and middle-income settings (LMIS) in the U.S. and abroad. There has been extensive research on how organizations implement individual innovations separately. There has been less research on how organizations implement sets of innovations, how they are combined, and the drivers for these innovation sets. Furthermore, a lack of supporting infrastructure and challenges that arise from organizational structure and environmental uncertainty in LMIS require a better understanding of a combined approach to innovation. This study introduces the concept of innovation solution sets. We explore the relationship between innovation solution sets, combination approaches as influenced by organizational structure, and innovation drivers through a multi-case study using qualitative and archival information from five healthcare organizations in Repiblik Ayiti (Haiti). We find that organizations tend to combine product/service, business model, and social innovations simultaneously in private organizations and sequentially in public-private partnerships. Drivers of simultaneous combination include limited external support, determined autonomy through external opposition, and financial need identification and the requisite knowledge and will to meet the need. Drivers of sequential combination include social need identification, community connections, and flexibility.

Nursing students’ innovation and creativity approaches: A descriptive study

The aim of this study is to reveal the creativity and innovativeness attitudes of nursing students who receive vocational education, to determine the influencing factors and to increase their awareness of innovation and creativity in nursing. The research was conducted as a descriptive study. The sample consisted of 399 nursing students. To collect data “Personal Information Form”, “Individual Innovativeness Scale Adapted for Nursing”, “Individual Creativity Scale” were used. Descriptive values, Shapiro-Wilk, Chi-square, Student’s-t, ANOVA, Tukey, Pearson Correlation test were used in the evaluation of the data. Ethics committee and institutional permission were obtained for the study. The average age of the participants is 20.82 ±1.69. The total score average of the participants is 59.19 for the Individual Innovativeness Scale and 55.58 for the Individual Creativity Scale. A significant relationship was found between genders, the place lived in the longest, the need for innovative thinking and individual innovativeness total score average. Also, a significant relationship was found between gender, place lived in the longest, participation in scientific activities related to creativity and innovativeness and innovative thinking status and creativity scale average score. The participants were skeptical about individual innovativeness and their creativity score average was at a medium level. The creativity and innovation scale scores of the participants were affected by some sociodemographic characteristics. It is recommended to plan trainings to raise awareness about innovation and creativity.

Antecedents and innovation outcomes of not‐invented‐here syndrome – Examination at individual, managerial, and organizational levels

A negatively shaped attitude-based bias towards external knowledge—the not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome—may constitute a significant obstacle for effective adoption of external knowledge and impair organizational innovativeness. The goal of this study is to shed light to the question how organizational and managerial features drive individual NIH, and how NIH connects further to individual innovativeness. Analysis of survey data collected from 93 employees reveals a joint effect of person-organization fit and leader-member exchange on NIH, and a negative association between NIH and innovative work behavior. Contrary to expectations, person-organization fit and perceived innovativeness of organizational culture do not have joint effects on NIH. The findings contribute to the development of a theoretical model of the interplay between individual-, managerial- and organizational-level antecedents and consequences of the NIH syndrome.

Enhancing IT industry employees’ service innovation performance: antecedents and outcomes of service innovation engagement

PurposeThis study aims to explore how information technology (IT) companies that provide professional information systems/IT solutions to business clients can enhance employees’ service innovation performance.Design/methodology/approachSelf-reported data were collected from 251 employees over two periods, along with their supervisor-reported data. The model was tested using structural equation modeling.FindingsEmployees’ engagement fully mediates the impact of innovative self-efficacy and social identification on service innovation performance. Employees’ customer orientation and feeling trusted both strengthen the transformation of service innovation engagement into service innovation performance. However, IT employees’ embeddedness, unexpectedly, significantly weakens the link between engagement and performance in business-to-business (B2B) service innovation contexts.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample was collected in Taiwan, where the IT industry is dominant and employees’ values and team interactions are influenced by Chinese culture. Data drawn from a single industry, involving a particular culture, limit claims of external validity.Practical implicationsManagers can encourage participative decision-making, or hold official platforms where peers and clients can exchange ideas, leading to higher levels of feeling trusted and customer orientation, which both strengthen the link between service innovation engagement and performance. Moreover, highly embedded members can easily discuss novel ideas with team members and obtain improvement-oriented feedback, which ensures highly embedded members can keep focusing on service innovation.Originality/valueThis study provides a more nuanced picture of predictive factors for individual innovation behavior in B2B service innovation contexts in which employees provide business clients with professional, innovative IT solutions through team-based projects.

Acceptance of educational use of the Internet of Things (IoT) in the context of individual innovativeness and ICT competency of pre-service teachers

ABSTRACT The acceptance of IoT technologies in education by pre-service teachers will affect their intention to use these technologies in the future. Previous research has addressed the effects of variables on the acceptance of IoT technologies in education to a limited degree. Therefore, this study aims to propose and test a structural model that determines educational IoT technology acceptance. This study, the acceptance of IoT in the educational environment is modeled in the context of individual innovativeness and information and communication technologies (ICT) competencies. According to the results of the research conducted with 471 pre-service teachers, 69% intended to use IoT in education is explained in a technology acceptance model (TAM) in which TAM variables, individual innovativeness, and ICT competencies are combined.

Psychological Factors and Innovation Performance of Scientific and Technological Personnel: The Mediating Role of Proactive Behavior and the Moderating Role of Organizational Support

The personal innovation of scientific and technological personnel not only provides the fundamental power for the innovation of enterprises, but also lays a solid foundation for enterprises innovation. In current study total 1050 scientific and technical staff questionnaires, empirical analysis of individual psychological contracts, psychological capital on personal proactive behavior of the employees, and a unique performance mechanism were used. The result can be drawn that the psychological contract of an individual and psychological capital factors on personal proactive behavior are more meaningfully and positively linked to innovation performance, intermediary between individual innovation performance, organizational support in individual psychological contracts, psychological capital, and proactive behavior.

Social cognition in insects.

Insects feature some of the most complex societies in the animal kingdom, but a historic perception persists that such complexity emerges from interactions between individuals whose behaviours are largely guided by innate routines. Challenging this perception, recent work shows that insects feature many aspects of social intelligence found in vertebrate societies, such as individual recognition, learning object manipulation by observation, and elements of cultural traditions. Insects also display emotion-like states, which may be linked to social behaviours such as rescuing others from danger. We review recent developments in insect social cognition and speculate that some forms of now-hardwired behaviour (e.g., nest construction) could have initially been the result of individual innovation and subsequent cultural spread, with evolution later cementing these behaviours into innate behaviour routines.

Social Impact: The Role of Authentic Leadership, Compassion and Grit in Social Entrepreneurship

This study examines the influence of leadership on social entrepreneurs; specifically, the impact of authentic leadership, compassion and grit on entrepreneurial processes and performance outcomes with a sample of Americans social entrepreneurs ( n = 284). Entrepreneurial process dimensions include individual innovation, opportunity recognition and social networks, and performance outcomes encompass social and financial performance, capturing dual mission characteristics of social entrepreneurship. The differing impacts of authentic leadership, compassion and grit are demonstrated, where authentic leadership influences all the dependent variables listed above, while compassion has a lesser positive influence on outcomes, except economic performance. Grit, only has a positive influence on innovation and economic performance. This research highlights that authentic leadership through its meaningful engagement is a more effective driver of multiple outcomes in social entrepreneurship, confirming that this new social business form works well with this newer social entrepreneurship leadership style.

Improved Employee Performance at PT Alas Harum Bali

This research was conducted based on the research gap and differences in the focus of the discussion on knowledge sharing, individual innovation abilities, and organizational citizenship behavior on employee performance. In addition, there are also research problems regarding the decline in employee performance at PT. Alas Harum Bali can be seen from the high level of employee absenteeism. This research was conducted at PT. Alas Harum Bali with a population of 65 employees and a sample of 65 employees. All data obtained from the distribution of questionnaires that can be used, then analyzed using SPSS 25. The results of the study indicate that knowledge sharing has a positive and significant effect on employee performance, individual innovation capability has a positive and significant effect on employee performance, and organizational citizenship behavior has a positive and significant impact on employee performance. Employee performance, knowledge sharing, individual innovation ability, and organizational citizenship behavior have a positive and significant effect on employee performance. This research suggests that knowledge sharing can be increased by taking into account the existing indicators. Individual innovation ability can be progressed by paying awareness to personality characteristic indicators. Organizational citizenship behavior can be improved by paying attention to courtesy indicators. Performance can be improved by paying attention to effectiveness indicators.

School support for teacher innovation: The role of basic psychological need satisfaction

Innovation is a core factor that determines the success of organizations in the 21st century. How individual innovation can be effectively facilitated is, consequently, an increasingly important topic. Conservation of resources theory depicts how supportive resources can relate to positive employee feelings and behaviors, but the underlying mechanisms remain unclear. Organizational support theorists hold an instrumental view on the motivational mechanisms of innovation, while self-determination theory (SDT) suggests that innovation is more likely to be promoted intrinsically. Teacher innovation is critical in the current educational reform, and its motivational mechanisms may differ, given teachers’ deep emotional connection with students. Drawing from SDT and using data from a survey of 1,115 primary and high school teachers in China, this study explored the relationship among school support, basic psychological needs, and teacher innovation, and further investigated the relationships among the needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness in facilitating teacher innovation. Results showed that need satisfaction is a useful theoretical mechanism to explain how teacher innovation is motivated, and that the effects of different needs vary. Relatedness had the greatest mpact on teacher innovation and was the antecedent of competence, while autonomy showed nonsignificant relationships with other variables. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

Adaptation of Individual Innovativeness Scale for School Principals: Turkish Validity-Reliability Study

Bu çalışma “Bireysel Yenilikçilik Ölçeği’’ni okul yöneticileri için uyarlayarak, geçerlik ve güvenirliğini test etmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Uyarlanan “Okul Yöneticileri Bireysel Yenilikçilik Ölçeği (OYBYÖ)” alanyazından bazı noktalarda farklılaşmıştır. 19 maddelik son form ölçek, 11 pozitif ve 8 negatif madde ve iki faktörlü yapıya sahiptir. Cronbach Alfa değerleri, Yeniliğe Açıklık ve Yeniliğe Direnç olarak isimlendirilen faktörler için 0.92, 0.88 ve tüm ölçek için 0.83’tür. Ölçeğin düzeltilmiş madde toplam korelasyon değerleri ve madde ortalama puanları arasındaki farkların anlamlılığı alt %27’lik ile üst %27’lik grupların madde ortalamaların ayırt edici ölçüm yaptıklarını göstermektedir. Doğrulayıcı Faktör Analizi sonucunda elde dilen modifikasyon yapılmış ölçek modelinde, uyum indeksi değerleri mükemmel, iyi ve kabul edilebilir düzeylerdedir. Hesaplanan χ2/sd oranı 1.23’tür. Bulgular, 19 maddelik OYBYÖ’nin okul yöneticilerinin bireysel yenilikçiliği ile ilgili algıların belirlenmesinde kullanılabilecek geçerli ve güvenilir bir ölçme aracı olduğunu göstermektedir. Okul yöneticilerinin bireysel yenilikçilik düzeylerinin tespit edilmesinin ve/veya ilişkili araştırmalarda OYBYÖ’nin kullanılmasının, eğitim yönetimi alanında okul yöneticilerinin bireysel yenilikçiliklerinin geliştirilmesine katkı sağlayacağı öngörülmektedir.

How Supportive Leadership Promotes Employee Innovation under Uncertainty: Evidence from Chinese E-Commerce Industry

Innovative behavior (IB) is an important issue in academic and other sectors. The increasing uncertainty caused by COVID-19 has resulted in rising job insecurity for employees in the e-commerce industry. This has jeopardized career sustainability (CS). Numerous studies have explored the influence of supportive leadership (SL) on IB, but so far there is still a dearth of research investigating the role of CS. In addition, CS must be considered because the perceived sustainability of a career has an impact on individual innovation. Therefore, based on job demands-resources (JDR) theory, we analyzed the effects of SL on IB as well as the roles of CS in IB. The mediating role of employee’s perceived occupational sustainability was explored. This study investigates the associations between supportive leadership style (job resource) and employee innovative behavior (job demand). In total, 308 valid samples were collected from China. Structural equation modeling examines the construct validity and path relationships. The results show that in China’s e-commerce industry, under the uncertainty brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, only when employees perceive CS can SL promote the transformation of job resources into workplace IB. That is, CS completely mediates SL and IB. This provides new information for the management of employee behavior in the current special period. The result revealed that SL improves IB through CS. Theoretically, this study fills the gap and establishes a theoretical framework for SL and IB. Practically, we offer guidance for enterprises and managers in that they should provide their employees with work resources which are good for employee CS so as to promote employees’ IB.

Bayesian Estimation of Supply Chain Innovation Path.

With the transformation of the supply chain from factor driven to investment driven and to innovation driven, supply chain innovation has attracted more and more attention. This paper obtains the Bayesian prior probability of innovation and studies the supply chain innovation path from the perspective of strategy and behavior. The model divides the overall innovation capability of the supply chain into specific node tasks and assets (Capability Set), and the innovation demand of the supply chain is expressed in the form of the conditional probability of market demand. Under the conditions of minimum risk, minimum cost, and rapid market response, it determines who should lead the supply chain innovation first and what type of supply chain innovation should be carried out first. Finally, taking the supply chain of the professional market in Zhejiang Province as an example, this paper verifies the theoretical model of supply chain innovation decision-making. The innovation of the supply chain of Zhejiang's specialized market is decomposed into the capability set of each enterprise node of the supply chain. This paper transforms the group innovation ability of the supply chain in the professional market into the individual innovation ability of a single enterprise node and reveals the starting point and intensity of the demand innovation of products/services in the supply chain.