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The agribusiness in Extremadura (Spain) is one of the main economic activities in the region. Within this industry, cooperativism stands out as a strategic component that influences the fixation of the rural population and the development of the territory. Likewise, innovation is fundamental for the competitiveness of companies. The aim of this study is to analyse the existence of a relationship between several business variables: strategy, culture, work climate, management, organisation and market orientation in the innovative performance of agri-food cooperative companies. Differences with other types of agri-food organisations are also analysed.

The authors proposed a conceptual research model, which aims to determine the influence of several business variables on innovative performance. A qualitative methodology was used through a multiple case study where five Extremaduran agri-food cooperatives were chosen to carry out the research.

The results show that the business variables are valued positively as factors that enhance innovative performance. Moreover, the peculiarities of cooperatives show several differences with respect to non-cooperative companies.

The results contribute to agri-food cooperatives' managers developing specific actions that improve the competitiveness and sustainability of agribusiness based on innovation.

La agroindustria en Extremadura (España) es una de las principales actividades económicas de la región. Dentro de esta industria, el cooperativismo destaca como un componente estratégico que influye en la fijación de la población rural y en el desarrollo del territorio. Asimismo, la innovación es fundamental para la competitividad de las empresas. El objetivo de este estudio es analizar la existencia de relación entre diversas variables empresariales: estrategia, cultura, clima laboral, gestión, organización y orientación al mercado en el desempeño innovador de las empresas cooperativas agroalimentarias. También se analizan las diferencias con otros tipos de organizaciones agroalimentarias.

Se propuso un modelo conceptual de investigación, cuyo objetivo es determinar la influencia de diversas variables empresariales en el rendimiento innovador. Se utilizó una metodología cualitativa a través de un estudio de caso múltiple en el que se eligieron cinco cooperativas agroalimentarias para llevar a cabo la investigación.

Los resultados muestran que las variables empresariales se valoran positivamente como factores que potencian el rendimiento innovador. Además, las peculiaridades de las cooperativas muestran varias diferencias con respecto a las empresas no cooperativas.

Los resultados contribuyen a que los gestores de las cooperativas agroalimentarias desarrollen acciones específicas que mejoren la competitividad y sostenibilidad de la agroindustria basada en la innovación.

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership and employee innovative behavior by testing the mediating role of autonomous motivation and the moderating role of employee power distance orientation.

The author predicted an indirect relationship between spiritual leadership and employee innovative behavior via autonomous motivation. Also, the author predicted the positive effect of spiritual leadership on employee innovative behavior will be stronger when employee power distance orientation is high. Hypotheses are tested with data gathered from 174 participants.

Results showed that spiritual leadership was positively related to employee innovative behavior via autonomous motivation. And, the positive relationship between spiritual leadership and autonomous motivation was stronger when employee power distance orientation was high. Furthermore, the indirect effect of autonomous motivation was stronger when employee power distance orientation was high.

This study provides a new theoretical perspective – self-determination theory – to test how and when spiritual leadership enhances employee innovative behavior by suggesting autonomous motivation as a mediator and employee power distance orientation as a boundary condition.

The results of this research provide suggestions for leaders to adopt spiritual leadership as well as enhance interactions between them and employees to increase employee innovative behavior.

This study highlights the moderating role of employee power distance orientation and uses self-determination theory to examine how and when spiritual leadership plays a positive role.

The purpose of this study is to examine the role of psychological capital (PsyCap) among employees in the higher education (HE) sector. Specifically, the aim of this paper is threefold. First, this study explores the effect of psychological empowerment (PsyEmp) and the two organizational culture factors of clan and market on PsyCap. Second, the study also examines the relationships between PsyEmp, PsyCap and individual innovative behavior (IIB). Third, this paper examines the mediating role of PsyCap on IIB and PsyEmp.

A conceptual model was developed and tested on 250 university employees in Norway. Partial least squares structural equation modeling was used to analyze the data.

The analysis shows that both PsyCap and PsyEmp have a direct positive relationship with IIB. The results also reveal that PsyEmp, clan culture and market culture are all positively and significantly linked to PsyCap. The relationship between IIB and PsyEmp is also mediated by PsyCap.

This study extends the knowledge of PsyCap in the context of the HE sector. For managers, the study highlights the importance of investing in and managing employees’ PsyCap. In addition, although perceived PsyEmp at work can strengthen the level of IIB among employees, employees’ PsyCap can be much more influential. Furthermore, the study contributes new knowledge regarding the symbiotic nature of various organizational culture types and the benefits of having both a clan culture and a market culture in enhancing organizational capabilities.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the teaching innovations that have been implemented in higher education institutions in Asia and the perspectives of educators on them.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 28 educators who were affiliated with 23 higher education institutions in ten Asian countries/regions. The interviews covered information about the teaching innovations of the participants’ institutions, the characteristics of the innovative practices and the participants’ views on them. The relationships between the characteristics of institutions and their teaching innovations were also examined.

The results showed that the teaching innovations included two main categories, namely, those which involved the use of advanced technologies and those which did not. The innovations that involved the use of advanced technologies were mainly from larger institutions, while the other category was mainly from smaller ones and had been practised for less than 1.5 years. Differences were also identified between the two categories in terms of the aims and importance of innovations, innovative features, the evaluation of innovations and improvements needed for them.

The results highlighted that technology is only one of the many aspects of teaching innovations, which is different from the view prevailing in the literature. They also suggested that differences in the scale of institutions (in terms of number of students) possibly influences the kind of teaching innovations adopted.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the relationships among organizational justice, innovative organization culture, perceived organizational support (POS), affective commitment and innovative behavior (IB). The mediating role of POS is tested within the relationship of justice dimensions, affective commitment and IB.

Data for this research were collected from 367 managerial and executive employees working in manufacturing and IT sector firms in Pakistan. Structural equation modeling was utilized to test hypothesized relationships.

Results indicate that organizational justice (distributive, procedural and interactional justice), innovative organization culture and POS are significantly related to affective commitment and employees’ IB. The findings also showed that organizational justice stimulates employees’ affective commitment and IB through mediating POS as well as directly.

The main limitation of this study is its cross-sectional design and self-reported questionnaire data. This study is also limited to manufacturing and IT sector in Pakistan. Therefore, other sectors and geographical locations could be chosen for future research using a bigger sample size.

This study makes important theoretical contributions using social exchange theory. It also expands the research in the area of organizational justice dimensions, organizational culture and POS as antecedents of affective commitment and IB. This study is an exceptional investigation of justice, organization culture, POS, commitment and IB in the Pakistan cultural context.

The purpose of this paper is to capture the role of internal and external characteristics in favouring the growth of innovative start-ups at an early stage of their life.

The empirical approach of this paper is based on an econometric analysis applied to all Italian innovative start-ups with four and five years of life. Growth is analysed after four and five years from the constitution, depending on internal investments in research and development (R&D), in tangible assets and on characteristics external to the firm (110 Italian provinces) related to industrial variety, specialisation, public investments in R&D, etc.

The results achieved in this study reveal the importance of internal R&D investment even though there is missing evidence on the relevance of general and government specific R&D investment in the area. Other interesting results concern the importance of the firm’s involvement in the technological specialisation of the area and the need for general variety in technological diversification in the area to favour the growth of start-ups.

The results imply that entrepreneurs should evaluate carefully their strategic choices in terms of the location of the start-up and the investment in R&D as these could be important factors for the firm’s growth.

This paper is an original attempt to measure the importance of both internal and external characteristics for the growth of start-ups. Moreover, the analysis covers the overall population of a new interesting category of firm, the innovative start-up.

The point of divergence for the authors’ analysis is the observation that research on the development of professional skills did not provide empirical support to a possible positive relationship between innovative culture and development of professional skills. The author believes that the injection of intervening variables has the potential to do just that. The purpose of this paper is to understand such contingencies through a developed moderated mediation model, which jointly examines supportive leadership as the mediating mechanism and individual power distance orientation as a moderator and to increase the theoretical validity and precision of investigating the development of professional skills.

The survey data were collected from 317 information technology (IT) professional technical engineers and their supervisors from high-tech sectors. The authors tested the hypotheses by hierarchical regression and followed Baron and Kenny (1986) instruction to examine our moderated mediation model. The authors used a series of confirmatory factor analyses (CFAs) to verify the constructs’ distinctiveness before testing the hypotheses was performed. Meanwhile, in order to test the mediating effect, the three-equation approach to testing mediation, as recommended by Baron and Kenny (1986), was used.

The strong support for schema theory in this study suggests that the development of professional skills can be notably promoted through a moderated mediation model which integrates the link between innovative culture and professional skills through the mediating effect of supportive leadership and the direct effects are mitigated by the moderating effect of individual power distance orientation. It highlights the importance of appropriately matching innovative culture and supportive leadership with the power distance orientation of employees. This universalistic organizational behavior approach has worked effectively in an Asian sample.

This study provides a better understanding of work motivation by showing that an employee uses schemas to interpret the relationships among perceived innovative culture, individual power distance orientation, supportive leadership and development of professional skills. This paper also illustrates how perceived innovative culture can act as an positive motivator to inspire IT technical engineers’ development of professional skills, and how individually held power distance orientation may positively or negatively influence the relationship between perceived innovative culture and supportive leadership. Hence, this study has extended the schema theory in organizations and informed the literature on supportive leadership.

Motivation is the main force through which individuals allocate effort to generate and implement innovative ideas. However, employees are only motivated to go beyond their designated role and get involved in spontaneous and innovative activities if they have a strong identification with the organization. Organizational culture plays a critical role in motivating innovative behaviour, as it can create commitment among members of an organization in terms of believing in innovation as an organizational value and accepting innovation‐related norms prevalent within the organization. The research this paper reports on addresses the motivational aspects of the relationship between culture and innovation in construction firms. Specifically, it focuses on those managerial actions through which the importance of innovation may be communicated and innovation‐related behaviour may be induced and reinforced. An in‐depth case study investigating the innovation activities of a Swiss contractor revealed that project constraints and regional separation may diminish the motivational effects of managerial actions in construction firms. It is concluded that a culture that motivates new solutions and innovative improvements in particular first of all prevents ideas from getting lost in daily business and within the organization. Giving immediate feedback, providing communication channels for implicit knowledge, allowing for autonomous work and task identity, initiating innovation projects and using a comprehensive reward and incentive system are appropriate managerial actions in this regard.

This paper aims to develop an innovation management framework for achieving sustainability by managing risks associated with innovative solutions during the design process.

To achieve the abovementioned aim, a research methodology was designed to achieve four objectives. Firstly, a literature review was conducted to investigate the concepts of sustainability, innovation, innovation management and innovation and the design process. Secondly, three case studies were selected and analysed to validate the identified risks of innovation and to investigate the role of innovation management towards managing risks of innovation during the design process. Thirdly, a survey questionnaire was carried out with a representative sample of architectural design firms (ADFs) in Egypt to examine their perception and application of innovation management as an approach to managing risks of innovative solutions during the design process. Finally, developing an innovation management framework to achieve sustainability through managing risks associated with innovative solutions during the design process.

The literature review revealed that innovation plays a significant role towards achieving sustainability objectives, but integrating innovative solutions during the design process is frequently associated with risks. During the course of this research, 30 risks of innovation were identified and classified into four categories of product, process, person and press. Case studies showed that ADFs that applied innovation management approaches were successful in managing the risks associated with innovative solutions, whereas others that failed to use such approaches failed to meet sustainability objectives. Results of the survey questionnaire revealed that ADFs not only recognised the importance of innovative solutions in developing sustainable projects but also showed a gap between theory and practice. “Project delivery” is the most important type of innovation for ADFs in Egypt, followed by “building technologies” and “organisational culture”. Moreover, there is a misalignment between ADFs’ perceptions and the strategies used to deliver successful innovations. The highest risks of innovation are “unanticipated cost of innovation”, “manufacturing technologies and development issues” and “failing to meet technical criteria”.

Because of the conceptual nature of the developed framework, it has to be tested and validated to ensure its capability to achieve sustainability through managing the risks of innovative solutions during the design process which, in this research, adopted the Royal Institute of British Architects plan of work stages. Moreover, the lack of data availability directed this study to present and analyse only three case studies.

This research presents a practical solution to achieve sustainability through managing risks of innovation during the design process. It is a structured tool that can be used by ADFs in Egypt towards facilitating the shift in the direction of a more economically viable, environmentally friendly and socially acceptable built environment.

Although innovative design solutions are needed in developing sustainable buildings, a practical and systematic framework to manage associated risks during the design process is still lacking. In addition, current studies are business-oriented and need to be reinterpreted to fit with the architectural, engineering and construction disciplines. Thus, this research developed an innovation management framework to achieve sustainability through managing the risks associated with innovative solutions during the design process, which represents a synthesis that is novel and creative in thought and adds value to the knowledge in a manner that has not been previously explored.

The paper aims at providing insights into how market orientation and organisational culture together contribute to brand performance, shedding light on the nexus between innovative culture and market orientation, and examining the relative importance of innovative culture over market orientation in affecting brand performance.

In a cross‐sectional survey, a variance‐based structural equation modelling was used to test hypotheses on a convenience sample of 180 marketing executives in Australia.

Organisations with a strong innovative culture appear to recognise that building a successful brand depends not always on the interpretation of feedback received from current customers and competitors, but instead on organisations' ability to innovatively develop unique ways of delivering superior value to customers. The findings were consistent with this advice to both market orientation and innovative culture. In addition, the findings indicate that market orientation is a response partially derived from the organisation's innovative culture. Finally, it was also found that organisational culture was relatively more important than market orientation in affecting organisational performance.

The paper advances the understanding of performance‐based market orientation research by investigating structural relationships among market orientation, organisational culture, and organisational performance at the micro level (e.g. brand performance).