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Comparing the roles of creativity and digital nativity in predicting general and IT innovativeness

Aldijana Bunjak (Business School, University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway)
Matej Cerne (School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia)
Jestine Philip (University of New Haven, West Haven, Connecticut, USA)
Peter Trkman (School of Economics and Business, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia)

Information Technology & People

ISSN: 0959-3845

Article publication date: 21 November 2024

744

Abstract

Purpose

The study compares the effects of creativity and digital nativity, with the latter signifying proficiency in digital skills, on enhancing innovation among employees. The research specifically evaluates the impact of creativity and digital nativity on general innovative performance and personal innovativeness using IT (PIIT).

Design/methodology/approach

Two studies were conducted. Study 1 surveyed 497 individuals on Prolific using objective measures of general innovative performance and self-report measures of PIIT. Study 2 replicated the same research design on Amazon Mechanical Turk with 336 participants and other-rated measures of PIIT.

Findings

Results were consistent across both studies and showed that creativity influenced general innovative performance more than digital nativity. However, digital nativity was a stronger predictor of PIIT, above and beyond the nonsignificant effects of creativity.

Research limitations/implications

This study helps understand the roles that digital nativity and creativity play in general innovative performance and in IT-related innovative performance by providing a relative importance analysis of these components.

Practical implications

We offer guidance to organizations on how to select individuals and assign them to particular tasks depending on digital or general innovative task requirements.

Originality/value

This is the first study to examine the direct comparison of creativity and digital nativity. Although the literature highlights the importance of digital nativity for innovation, our research reveals that creativity is more important for general innovative performance.

Keywords

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the editor, Paul Jones, and the anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback and constructive suggestions, which have significantly improved the quality of this paper.

Citation

Bunjak, A., Cerne, M., Philip, J. and Trkman, P. (2024), "Comparing the roles of creativity and digital nativity in predicting general and IT innovativeness", Information Technology & People, Vol. ahead-of-print No. ahead-of-print. https://doi.org/10.1108/ITP-08-2023-0831

Publisher

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Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2024, Emerald Publishing Limited

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