Employees' Innovation Behavior - The Role of External Information Awareness and Proactiveness of Innovation Strategy

Employees’ innovation behavior (IB), which involves developing, promoting, judging, distributing and implementing new ideas, is the foundation for knowledge creation and diffusion in organizations. Therefore, it is important to encourage employees’ IB in knowledge management initiatives. To better understand IB, this study applies the theory of planned behavior (TPB). Employees’ attitude towards innovation, subjective norm about innovation, and perceived behavioral control to innovation are expected to influence employees’ IB. In addition, the effects of organizational factors are considered. Specifically, the influence of external information awareness (EIA) and proactiveness of innovation strategy (PIS) are examined. Results from a survey of employees in Japanese organizations show that employees’ attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control not only significantly influence their innovative behavior, they also mediate the effects of EIA and PIS. This study contributes to research by understanding what individual and organizational factors influence employees’ IB and extending TPB by considering the effects of EIA and PIS, using data collected from an understudied yet important context. The findings also suggest that managers should focus on improving perceived behavioral controls, EIA and PIS to encourage employees’ IB.

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