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The complex and changeable working environment makes individual cross-boundary activities inevitable. Yet, how employee's boundary-spanning behavior (BSB) stimulates innovation performance remains to be further explored. This study aims to analyze the intermediary mechanism and boundary conditions between employee's BSB and innovation performance based on knowledge integration theory.

The authors collected data in two waves (July and August 2017) and from two hierarchical levels (from the final sample of 286 employees and their 29 direct supervisors) within ten manufacturing firms located in Nanjing and Anhui, China.

The results indicate that creative ideas generation mediates the relationship between employee's BSB and innovation performance. Moreover, employees with higher levels of team task interdependence (TTI) lead to a stronger relationship between ideas generation and innovation performance compared to lower levels of TTI (positively moderates the second stage of mediation).

By verifying the key effects of ideas generation and TTI between employee's BSB and innovation performance, the findings of this study provide practical guidance for enterprises to improve the efficiency of employee's BSB.

First, the authors use knowledge integration theory (Grant, 1996a) to deduce the formation process of the mechanism between employee's BSB and his/her innovation results, which clearly shows the driving forces and integral power of the formation process within an individual knowledge integrating system. The authors’ second contribution is further exploring the conditions under which engaging innovative ideas generated by the integration of employee's BSB is more likely to lead to ideas for implementation by examining TTI as a team-level moderator.

This study aims to explore the transmission mechanism of individual idea generation on team idea implementation and elucidate the relationships among team knowledge territoriality, team information exchange and team trust, which can better improve team knowledge sharing, decrease individual knowledge hiding or territoriality and assist the team in solving the predicament of idea implementation.

The data were collected by the paired method from 56 Chinese companies’ R&D teams, which comprised 356 valid samples. Besides, structure equitation modeling and hierarchical linear modeling were used to test the hypotheses.

Team knowledge territoriality had a significant positive impact on individual idea generation, team information exchange and team idea implementation. Team information exchange mediated the relationship between team knowledge territoriality and team idea implementation. Moreover, team information exchange positively moderated the relationship between team knowledge territoriality and individual idea generation. Furthermore, the relationship between individual idea generation and team idea implementation was mediated by team trust.

This study augments the theoretical research of territoriality and innovation process. From the viewpoint of knowledge territoriality to describe the coexistence of knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding in the organization, this study reveals the influence mechanism of team knowledge territoriality on team innovation process. Overall, this study provides empirical support that team territoriality can weaken the adverse impact of individual territoriality on innovation to a certain extent.

Consumers who share their suggestions with firms contribute valuable knowledge and both exhibit and reinforce positive customer engagement. Yet, the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm customer suggestion sharing remain understudied. This study aims to investigate how potential self, other customer and firm benefits motivate consumer suggestion sharing.

A critical incident pretest explores the domain and establishes ecological validity. Two scenario-based experimental studies test the proposed relationships in distinct service contexts.

Results support a prosocial (helpful) view of suggestion sharing – potential benefits to other customers motivate suggestion sharing. Potential benefits for the firm play two roles, namely, they indirectly motivate suggestion sharing by increasing consumers’ perceived outcome expectancy, illustrating a pragmatic mechanism, and they directly motivate suggestion sharing when service quality is high, illustrating a conditional, reciprocity-driven mechanism. When service quality is low, consumers are less likely to share firm-benefitting suggestions and more likely to share non-beneficial suggestions, highlighting a potential low service quality “trap” in which firms can become stuck.

Future research is needed to study the antecedents of attitude toward suggestion sharing and the effect of relationship strength on suggestion sharing.

Managerially, multiple paths are identified by which firms can motivate suggestion sharing. The low-service quality “trap” indicates that low-service quality firms should not rely on, and should perhaps even ignore, customer suggestions as a tool for improving their offerings.

By experimentally investigating the motivational antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing, this paper fills a gap in extant research and provides a foundation upon which future suggestion sharing research can build.

Drawing on both social exchange theory (SET) and social cognitive theory, this paper aims to theorize and empirically examine a moderated serial mediation model that investigates the underlying mechanism through which high-performance work practices (HPWPs) influence employee innovative behaviors.

The hypotheses are tested on data collected from 182 Taiwanese subordinate-supervisor pairs. Hierarchical regression analyzes and bootstrapping were used to analyze the data.

Findings indicate that employee's individually perceived HPWP is indirectly related to the implementation of workers' creative ideas via information exchange and creative idea generation sequentially. Additionally, the presence of creative coworkers will amplify this serial indirect effect.

This study explicates the underlying theoretical logic linking employee perceived HPWP and individual innovation, i.e. the implementation of the worker's creative ideas by proposing a serial mediation effect. This study also emphasizes the importance of the presence of creative coworkers in the workplace.

Online user innovation community (OUIC) has become a vital source for enterprises to obtain user innovation ideas and interact with users in new product development. However, most studies only focus on the relationship between users and ideas, often ignoring the influence of employees in the innovation platform. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of employee behaviors on idea quality in OUIC.

In this paper, the authors collected sample data of open user innovation community – Idea Exchange – and then, the authors examined the direct roles of employee’s idea generation behaviors and idea promotion behaviors on idea quality and the moderating roles of social networks position and enthusiasm by using binary logistic regression model.

Results indicated that employee’s idea generation behaviors and idea promotion behaviors have a positive influence on users’ idea quality. Also, the social network position and characteristics show the moderation effect of employee behavior and idea quality.

This study is different from prior studies because it emphasizes the role of employees in the open source platform. The findings suggest that enterprises and platform managers pay more attention to the impact of employees and improve the quality of ideas and promote the development of OUIC.

The purpose of this paper is to assess the effects of two types of trust (vertical and horizontal trust) on knowledge sharing (knowledge donating and knowledge collecting) and the impact of knowledge sharing on innovative work behavior (idea generation and idea realization). The study also explores the mediating role of knowledge sharing.

Partial least squares path modeling and data collected from 252 participants at one large Polish capital group were used to test the research hypotheses.

The results showed that both vertical trust and horizontal trust are positively related to knowledge donating and knowledge collecting. Contrary to knowledge collecting, knowledge donating is significantly related to idea generation, which is highly correlated with idea realization. There is no direct relation between knowledge sharing behavior and idea realization. Knowledge donating mediates the relationship between vertical trust and idea generation.

Self-reports and the cross-sectional nature of the data collection are the main limitations of this study.

The results allow managers to better understand what factors and processes contribute to greater employee innovativeness.

To the best of the author's knowledge, the study is the first to examine the relationships among vertical trust, horizontal trust, knowledge donating, knowledge collecting, idea generation and idea realization in an integrated way. This paper answered the questions (1) which type of trust is more important for knowledge sharing, and (2) which type of knowledge sharing behavior is more important for innovative work behavior. This paper investigated whether differences in the strength of relationships between constructs are significant.

This study aims to present a novel approach of using technology trends to trigger product ideas. It is primarily addressed to product ideation where limited applied approaches are available.

The model is built by extending the theoretical framework of ideation study. It comprises morphological analysis with product breakdown as primary and technological trends as a secondary dimension to prompt product ideas from user’s intuition. The approach is multidisciplinary using insights from the areas of cognition, management strategy and project management. The model is further tested in two different test configurations with university students (n = 81).

The results indicate that this systematic model can increase the quality and number of ideas generated by the students compared to generally practised approaches. It is shown that this approach increases the chances of triggering ideas.

The testing of the present model is comprehensive and in no means exhaustive.

Because of the shrinking product life cycle, organisations have a need for systematic product ideation models that can assist in innovating their product ranges. It is important to study idea generation for products to not only assist product innovation but also comprehensively understand the process of creativity. The proposed model is primarily addressed to product innovation projects where limited practical tools are available for product ideation. The present model is easy to apply and has the tendency to generate novel product ideas that can lead to successful product innovations.

Product innovation currently has limited systematic ideation tools where this study contributes.

Among the many different methods used to generate new product ideas, group brainstorming has been one of the most popular. However, brainstorming has fallen into disfavor with many practitioners and researchers on the basis of such factors as the necessity for a skilled group leader, the potential for conflicts among members which can disrupt the process, and the possibility of one or more members dominating the discussion. Brainwriting, which is the silent, written generation of ideas by a group, is proposed as an alternative to brainstorming. Six different group brainiwriting techniques are described and suggestions given for the most appropriate use of each. It is concluded that both brainwriting and brainstorming will be useful in different situations and should be viewed as supplemental rather than primary sources of new product ideas. Furthermore, it is noted that idea generation is only part of the process. The best ideas in the world will be of little value if they are not implemented successfully.

This paper aims to offer a personal reflection on the 2012 joint conference of the American Society for Cybernetics and the Bateson Idea Group, “An Ecology of Ideas”. The intent is to raise awareness, through examples, of ideas – and their associated ways of thinking – that the author tends to take for granted in the work as systems theorists as well as in everyday life, yet ideas that confound the very social issues the conferees were trying to address.

The thoughts expressed arose after five days of listening to presentations and discussions, both formal and informal. The approach is conversational, with a desire to stimulate further conversation.

Certain versions of systems theory – whole systems, purposeful systems, systems theory as ideology – rely on ideas that although written about extensively in philosophical and socio-political works go unchallenged in everyday life. Three of these ideas – hierarchy, purpose, belief – are embedded in the way of talking about, and the language used to formulate, solutions to social problems. The suggestion is to avoid or suspend these ideas so that alternatives can be considered.

Idea avoidance offers those who study social change and/or those who participate in making it happen a way to escape the stuckness of ideas so ingrained in the everyday ways of thinking that they go unnoticed.

The purpose of this paper is to explore when, why and to what extent firms should intervene in firm-hosted idea-generation communities, and to develop a framework for firm-intervention.

A single case-study is conducted in a highly successful firm-hosted idea-generation community called Dell IdeaStorm, whereby the netnographic approach is applied.

The findings indicate that, overall, firm-participation is minimal and passive, and varies according to the three stages of the idea lifecycle in the community, such as ideation stage – here firm-participation is limited to acknowledgement of new ideas, checking for redundancy, managing search tool and profanity filtering; discussion and development stage – here firm-participation is more active by providing feedback and clarification when needed, troubleshooting, asking for additional input on an idea, etc.; and completion stage – here a firm intervenes to screen and select the most promising ideas for implementation and also provides status updates on ideas.

This study contributes by developing a new framework for firm-participation, which is useful for the early diagnosis of community issues in idea generation. The framework is also a tactical tool which can be used to guide community managers in selecting the correct moderation approach, depending on the specific stage in the idea lifecycle.