Search results

Innovation drives new product development, novel approaches to our professional and personal lives, and entrepreneurial activity in our communities. Women entrepreneurs are increasing in numbers and are becoming more visible across myriad domains. A growing number of scholars are focusing on better understanding women entrepreneurs’ unique approach to developing an entrepreneurial enterprise. However, the research suggests that entrepreneurship is still (mis)perceived as being traditionally masculine, with the number of men outnumbering the number of women entrepreneurs. Using a model of innovation consisting of the three distinct tasks of idea generation, idea promotion, and idea realization (Janssen, 2000; Scott & Bruce, 1994), this chapter explores the influence of gender on these various domains, followed by suggestions for future research and practical implications for women entrepreneurs today.

Creativity and innovation have been buzzwords of managerial discourse over the last few decades as they contribute to the long-term survival and competitiveness of firms. Given the non-linear, causally ambiguous, and intangible nature of all innovation-related phenomena, management scholars have been trying to uncover factors that contribute to creativity and innovation from multiple lenses ranging from organizational behavior at the micro-level to strategic management at the macro-level. Along with important and insightful developments in these research streams that evolved independently from one another, human resource management (HRM) research – especially from a strategic perspective – has only recently started to contribute to a better understanding of both creativity and innovation. The goal of this chapter is to review the contributions of strategic HRM research to an improved understanding of creativity at the individual-level and innovation at the firm-level. In organizing this review, the authors rely on the open innovation funnel as a metaphor to review research on both HRM practices and HRM systems that contribute to creativity and innovation. In the last section, the authors focus on more recent developments in HRM research that focus on ambidexterity – as a way for HRM to simultaneously facilitate exploration and exploitation. This chapter concludes with a discussion of future research directions.

One recent direction for leadership research has been the use of purely qualitative data and qualitative analysis. One analytical method used in this phenomenological research has been the full grounded theory method. That method has generated social process theories about leadership in organizational settings. The present research operationalizes those theories into questionnaire format. This operationalized work gives support to a one-factor model for social processes of leadership (SPL) in organizations. It also identifies four lower-order social processes of leadership. Concurrent validity is concluded from a high correlation with Bass & Avolio’s and Podsakoff’s transformational leadership constructs. The correlations are so high that the SPL scale might be tapping the same underlying construct as transformational leadership. The augmentation effect of transformational leadership over (transactional) management is also supported. Support has been obtained for ongoing grounded theory-based research into the social processes of leadership and influence, and related phenomena, in organizations.

Emotional intelligence reflects the ability to read and understand others in social contexts, to detect the nuances of emotional reactions, and to utilize such knowledge to influence others through emotional regulation and control. As such, it represents a critically important competency for effective leadership and team performance in organizations today. In this paper, we develop a conceptual model that brings together theory and research on emotional intelligence, leadership, and team process and outcomes. Additionally, we formulate testable propositions, propose directions for future research, and discuss implications for practice.

New ways of working (NWW) change some fundamental processes in the workplace. NWW practices like teleworking, flexible workspaces, and flexible working hours lead to different behaviors of employees. But does the employment of NWW practices also have an impact on the innovation behavior of employees? This chapter explores this relationship and uses qualitative data from case studies to illustrate the complex linkages between three components of NWW and IWB.

This chapter aims to (1) examine the effect of full-time employees’ STARA awareness on innovative work behavioural intentions in US casual dining restaurants; (2) investigate the mediating roles of employees’ challenge–hindrance appraisals of STARA awareness on the relationship between their STARA awareness and innovative work behavioural intentions; (3) compare the group differences between management employees and non-management employees; and (4) provide recommendations for the casual dining restaurants.

This chapter employed an online survey to collect data from 609 full-time employees in US casual dining restaurants, including 306 management employees and 303 non-management employees. Partial least squares–structural equation modelling was applied for data analysis. The results reveal that the high levels of employees’ STARA awareness raise innovative work behavioural intentions through the mediations of challenge appraisal of STARA awareness.

The proposed conceptual framework and empirical findings in this chapter enrich the literature of cognitive appraisal theory, transactional model and stress, two-dimensional stressor framework, and person-environment fit theory. Employees’ challenge appraisal of STARA awareness makes the job insecurity stressor to drive innovative work behavioural intentions. As STARA adoption deepens in casual dining restaurants, managers need to be aware of full-time employees’ stress and psychological responses towards STARA adoption. Restaurants are suggested to provide employees with adequate resources and support to help employees’ professional competency growth. The capable employees will appraise the job insecurity stressor induced by STARA adoption as an opportunity and be motivated to perform innovatively in the workplace. The casual dining restaurants may enjoy a competitive advantage in the market through value-added innovative activities.

Strategy scholars have long argued that breakthrough innovation is generated by recombining knowledge from distant domains. Even if firms have the ability to access and absorb knowledge from distant domains, however, they may fail to pay attention to such knowledge because it is seemingly irrelevant to their tasks. We draw attention to this problem of knowledge relevance and develop a theoretical model to illuminate how ideas from seemingly irrelevant (i.e., peripheral) domains can generate breakthrough innovation through the cognitive process of analogical reasoning, as well as the conditions under which this is more likely to occur. We situate our theoretical model in the context of teams in order to develop insight into the microfoundations of knowledge recombination within firms. Our model reveals paradoxical requirements for teams that help to explain why breakthrough innovation is so difficult.

In the current business environment, no organization is assured of survival without continuous innovation. Employees’ innovative behavior is critical to enhance the innovation of an organization. While most literature on innovative behavior has focused on employees in the private sector, the purpose of this paper is to explore the factors that affect innovative behaviors in the government sector. In particular, it examines how proactivity, leader-member exchange (LMX), and climate for innovation affect employees’ innovative behavior in the Korean government sector, which is generally characterized as highly hierarchical, structured, and formalized.

The authors selected a sample of government employees in the Ministry of Education in Korea. Through the researchers’ contacts, ten government agencies agreed to recruit their employees to participate in the study. Data from 1,011 respondents were analyzed in two steps using structural equation modeling. First, to examine the construct validity of the measures, the authors examined the measurement model using the confirmatory factor analysis. Second, the interrelationships among the four variables were assessed. The hypothesized structural model was examined and compared to several alternative models to explore the best model fit to the data. The authors then examined the regression coefficients to determine the hypothesized relationships in the final structured model.

The results revealed the following: proactivity and climate for innovation had positive relationships with innovative behavior; LMX had a positive relationship with proactivity although it did not have a direct relationship with innovative behavior; and organizational climate for innovation did not ensure proactivity of employees.

The antecedents included in this research have been studied in relation to innovative behavior in several studies, but studies have called for further study. Few studies have examined innovative behavior in the public sector and they have examined innovation in the public sector which has mostly been focused on environmental factors surrounding government organizations or policy choices of government leaders while ignoring the individual traits of public workers, relational dynamics among people, and the cultural aspects of the organizations. This study investigated the interrelationships among the antecedents in the process of impacting innovative behavior in the public sector in Korea. In addition, little research has examined the antecedents of innovative behavior together. This study expands our knowledge of the roles and interrelationships of proactivity, LMX, and organizational climate for innovation as they relate to innovative behavior.

Christian Churches in the United States are facing decline and, just like other organizations, must renew themselves. This study explores the culture of a successful Midwestern church and its climate for innovation in an effort to move this church toward renewal. Through multiple regressionanalysis, support was found for the literature’s claims that a strong adhocracy culture has a significantly positive relationship with climate for innovation. However, the findings offered startling support that a strong clan culture has an even greater significant correlation with climate for innovation. Interestingly, it was found that market and hierarchy cultures have a small inverse relationship with support for innovation, and also that market culture has a small inverse relationship with resource supply. These results have significant implications for churches, ministries, and other nonprofit leaders and their organizations.