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The purpose of this paper is to evaluate doctoral candidates’ innovative ability tendency.

This study uses the theory of gray target contribution to analyze the influence degree of doctoral candidates’ individual personality factor toward their innovative ability and calculate gray impact quantitative values.

Based on the theory of contribution degree of gray target, a nine-factor model of innovative personality of doctoral candidates is built. IP=f (B, H, G, Q1, Q2, A, I, F, O), (therein: B – intelligence, H – social boldness, G – perseverance, Q1 – experimental, Q2 – independence, A – gregariousness, I – sensibility, F – excitability, O – anxiety).

This study based on gray target contribution theory builds nine-factor doctoral candidates’ innovative personality model to test the innovative ability tendency of doctoral candidates, which makes cultivating units, mentors and doctoral candidates to know their innovative ability tendency well, perfecting their own knowledge structure in time, effectively improving their innovative ability. The system can also be applied to the work of doctoral candidates as a reference tool to evaluate the innovative ability of applicants.

This study quantitatively evaluates the influence of doctoral candidates’ personality index on the tendency of doctoral candidates’ innovative ability.

This paper aims to present a systematic review of the literature concerning major aspects of innovation performance and compare the research hotspots of innovation performance in the twenty-first century with three primary purposes: first, to view the trend of Chinese and English literature on innovation performance research; second, to summarize the research streams in innovation performance; and third, to predict possible directions for future innovation performance research.

The authors first introduce a framework of innovation performance research developments. Then they construct a representative data set of bibliographic records, obtaining 1,768 articles in the SSCI citation index database and 1,431 articles in the CSSCI database. The authors then make a comparative analysis from two aspects: research themes and development of academic communities. The research objects are keywords and references so that co-word and co-cited reference networks are established. Finally, the authors combine the direction of research streams about “innovation performance” to summarize 28 questions in three research fields that can be studied in the future.

The momentum of the literature in English on innovation performance is increasing, whereas the Chinese literature has declined in recent years. The direction of research streams in Chinese and English literature is the same: they are the “innovation system/elements” research stream, the “innovation activity/ability” research stream and the “innovation network/social capital” research stream. Although the directions are the same, the specific contents of the research are different. The direction of future development of innovation performance research can be undertaken in three aspects: follow research into expanding hot topics, mine the research of typical academic circles and develop research into exploring more fields. Combined with the direction of research streams, 28 questions in three research fields are summarized.

Based on the background of “mass entrepreneurship and innovation” in China, the research on enterprise “innovation performance” is becoming more and more important. The findings help us summarize the research streams related to innovation performance research, better understand the themes that point to directions for future development of innovation performance research and summarize 28 questions.

The purpose of the paper is to explore the antecedents of employability from the employer’s perspective to provide sustainable employment and to develop a measurement scale.

In the study, the survey-based approach has been adopted. The authors developed an instrument following extensive literature review and further pre-tested the instrument with experts drawn from the academics. The data collection was monitored following Dillman’s (2007) total design test method. Finally, 114 usable responses were collected. The data were further tested for normal assumptions. Orthogonal and parsimonious constructs were derived following exploratory factor analysis, and the construct validity was checked using confirmatory factor analysis.

The following antecedents of employability were obtained: innovative skills and innovative abilities along with the knowledge, innovative abilities, personality factors, career-building traits, emotional intelligence and efficacy beliefs.

The authors observed that the present study like other survey-based research has its own limitations. Currently, cross-sectional data were used, which inherit some serious limitations like endogeneity and common method bias. However, utmost care was taken to minimize the effects of endogeneity and common method bias using some suggested measures in the existing literature.

The findings and conclusions are expected to aid students, academicians and practitioners in developing an understanding of employability. Moreover, these antecedents can be developed in graduates along with their higher education as per the requirements of the industry.

This paper is an attempt to develop a scale for measurement of employability in the education sector.

Knowledge sharing in a master-apprentice pattern is the process of transferring tacit knowledge from masters to apprentices. In addition, 90 per cent of knowledge required for organizational innovation is tacit knowledge in the master-apprentice pattern. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the evolution of knowledge sharing in master-apprentice pattern and explore the consequences of how to improve the knowledge sharing in the master-apprentice pattern.

This paper uses asymmetric evolutionary game theory to study the evolutionary track of knowledge sharing in master-apprentice pattern of innovative organizations by analyzing the utility of masters and apprentices during the process of knowledge sharing in master-apprentice pattern of the innovative organization.

The results reveal that when the masters obtained utility from sharing knowledge is greater than that from hoarding knowledge, and the apprentices obtained utility from studying hard is greater than the costs, the innovative organization can get the largest utility from the knowledge sharing in the mater-apprentice pattern.

The limitation of the research is that this paper mainly studies knowledge sharing among individuals and does not research knowledge sharing between individuals and organizations.

This research has extended the understanding of knowledge sharing in master-apprentice and its evolution path. Also, the obtained findings are conducive to promoting knowledge sharing in master-apprentice and improving human resource management in innovative organizations.

This paper attempts to construct the evolution path of knowledge sharing in master-apprentice pattern, which is a useful exploration of the dynamics of knowledge sharing in master-apprentice pattern and makes up for the shortcomings of the existing research.

The purpose of this paper is to explore the black box between high-performance work systems (HPWS) and innovation performance in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Through application of the ability, motivation and opportunity (AMO) framework, the study examines the mediating roles of innovation-specific ability, motivation and voice behaviors between HPWS and SMEs’ innovation performance.

The hypotheses are tested on data collected through a self-administered questionnaire from 237 SMEs in Pakistan.

Findings indicate that human capital, motivation and employee voice fully mediate the relationship between HPWS and innovation performance in SMEs.

The cross-sectional research design and self-reported measures warrant caution for the interpretation of findings. Future research may consider a longitudinal research design and objective measures.

SMEs need to invest in the adoption and implementation of HPWS that will develop innovation-specific abilities, motivation and voice behaviors simultaneously among employees that will lead to higher innovation performance.

This is the first study of its kind utilizing an AMO framework to investigate the underlying mechanism through which HPWS affect innovation performance in SMEs.

The purpose of this paper was to examine the relationship between organizational tenure and employee innovative behavior and the influence of culture difference and status-related moderators (i.e. status hierarchy and status stability) on the linkage.

By using a meta-analysis method that included 76 empirical studies, this study examines the relationship of organizational tenure and innovative behavior. In this study, 79 samples (N = 21659) derived from 76 empirical studies that met the inclusion criteria in the meta-analysis.

The results show that organizational tenure has a weak positive effect on employee innovative behavior (r = 0.04), and status hierarchy, position tenure, culture difference and measurement ways influence the relationship between the two. In addition, a three-way interaction among status hierarchy, position tenure and organizational tenure is found to jointly affect innovative behavior; specifically, for those who are low in status hierarchy and short in position tenure, their organizational tenures are positively related to innovative behavior, but for those with a longer position tenure in organizations, their organizational tenure may relate to innovative behavior negatively, whatever their status hierarchies are (high or low). This study is helpful in providing theoretical foundation and practical skills to such issues regarding how to trigger innovative behavior efficiently at different career stages.

Limitations include tenure range of participants and no longitudinal samples in our studies. Future research should examine more contextual factors which influenced the relationship between organizational tenure and innovative behavior.

The results of this study show that long organizational tenure is not negatively related to innovative behaviors. For managers, do not ignore the contribution of long-tenured employees to innovation. Through promotion or job rotation to increase employees’ job satisfaction and innovative willing.

To authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to examine status attribute class variables in the relationship between organizational tenure on innovative behavior. The study is helpful in providing theoretical foundation and practical skills to such issues regarding how to trigger innovative behavior at different career stages correctly.

A rise in international travel leads to increased competitiveness in the hotel industry. The purpose of this paper is to examine the moderating effect of social networking relationships on the association between innovative capability (IC) and firm performance in Ghana’s hotel industry.

Data are collected from managers of 200 registered hotels in the northern region of Ghana. Data were collected by means of a structured questionnaire, with variables measured on a seven-point Likert scale.

The findings reveal a mixture of confirmation for the relationships hypothesized in this study. IC influences the financial as well as the operational performance of hotels and guesthouses in Ghana. Social network relationships have a slight tendency to positively impact on business performance. Network relationships with the community leaders enable hotels to gain knowledge from local communities to build its IC. Social networking with political leaders does not moderate the relationship between IC and performance.

The findings provide empirical support for the viability and performance benefits of developing IC, so as to inform management interventions. It is focused on Sub-Saharan Africa specifically, where managers in the hospitality industry need to find new approaches to develop IC in order to remain competitive. The potential contribution of this study lies in the moderating role that IC plays in the relationship between different types of social networking relationship and performance of hotels.

History is full of companies that were once innovative leaders but lost their innovative ability. The purpose of this paper is to explore, from a firm‐level perspective, organizational characteristics for continuous innovation in rapidly changing industries.

Findings from 28 interviews at Google Inc., are compared to previous research on organizational characteristics for continuous innovation.

Google's organization can be viewed as a dynamic and open corporate system for continuous innovation, involving the entire organization and supported by an innovation‐oriented and change‐prone top management and board. The relative importance of eight organizational characteristics in this corporate system is elaborated upon.

There is a need for empirical research contributing to the development of a more comprehensive analytical framework for continuous innovation, including the role of culture and selection/facilitation of self‐organizing individuals in innovation processes; and to study how to organize for both continuous innovation and continuous improvements.

The importance of factors such as culture and the selection of individuals, identified in the empirical study, needs to be considered by managers, and might influence their understanding of how to sustain continuous innovation over time.

This paper provides, from a firm‐level perspective and based on a unique access to empirical data, increased understanding of organizational characteristics conducive to continuous innovation in rapidly changing industries, and highlights the importance of characteristics that received less emphasis in previous research literature.

The purpose of this paper is to identify different types of organizational innovativeness in Austrian hotels and analyze their connection to (innovation) success. In the face of growing international competition, innovation is becoming increasingly important for Austria’s hotel industry. A prerequisite for innovation is organizational innovativeness.

This paper is based on a quantitative survey of 255 Austrian hotel businesses with a minimum of five employees. Innovativeness was measured by three dimensions (willingness, ability and possibility to innovate) and success by five dimensions (overall performance: financial, market and employee-related success; innovation success: product and process innovations). Findings were obtained by combining an exploratory factor analysis with a cluster analysis.

Factor analysis reveals five factors determining organizational innovativeness: “cooperation as trigger for change”; “acceptance of change”; “resource based scope for change”; “pluralism as trigger for change”; and “loose coupling and error-tolerance”. The cluster analysis identifies four types of hotels regarding organizational innovativeness indicating differences regarding the success dimensions: “potential innovators hindered by scarce resources and unsupportive structures”, “well-resourced conservatives”, “potential innovators hindered by a haphazard approach” and “cautious idea hunters”. On the whole, results show that a balanced configuration of organizational innovativeness combined with a cautious approach is connected with greater (innovation) success.

Key-informant and survivor biases have to be considered as all items in the questionnaire were evaluated by self-assessment of the hotel management and only successful hotels (in the sense of survival) were analyzed. One important implication is that (innovation) success depends on the system that enables it; therefore, organizational innovativeness is a precondition of successful innovations. Nevertheless, there is little research on organizational innovativeness in the service sector so far.

This paper supports tourism businesses in understanding the concept of organizational innovativeness and its relation to (innovation) success. SMEs, which dominate the Austrian hotel industry, tend to focus on the financial aspect of innovativeness and, in general, do not consider the range of factors that constitute an organization’s innovativeness (willingness, ability and possibility to innovate) and the various outcomes.

By combining organizational innovativeness and (innovation) success, the paper applies an important element of innovation theory to the Austrian hotel industry. The characterization of different types of hotels regarding organizational innovativeness and success enables a (self-) assessment for hotel businesses and the deduction of customized implications.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the direct role being played by transformational leadership (TL) dimensions in reinforcing product and service innovation. More particularly, the paper focusses on the role of job satisfaction (JS) as a mediator in this relationship.

A concurrent mixed methods technique was employed. The researcher surveyed 486 participants from three major telecoms companies that operate in Jordan to supply the society with mobile phones and internet services. In addition, 15 team leaders were interviewed for the same purpose.

The results of this paper support the positive direct impact of transformational leaders on both employees’ innovativeness and JS. In addition, JS was found to positively impact product and service innovation. Moreover, the results revealed that JS mediates the relationship between TL and innovation.

Leaders are playing a direct and significant role in reinforcing product and service innovation in an interesting manner, especially through JS. Other styles of leadership, populations, and methods may create new perceptions in further research works.

The findings in this paper indicate that practising superior level of TL behaviours enhances overall JS, which, as a result, reinforces product and service innovation within employees in the Jordanian telecom sector. Superior outputs are achieved through such styles both for the firm as a whole towards innovative products and services, and similarly, for individuals within teams who involve in further innovative team climate.

These outcomes augment understanding of practises in which transformational leaders endorse innovation, and emphasise the values added through endorsing more TL behaviours to yield more innovative outputs by employees.