Bureaucracy and innovation revisited: Effects of contingency factors, industrial sectors, and innovation characteristics

Abstract While the negative effect of bureaucracy on innovation is taken as a given by organization researchers, the existing models used to depict the relationship between bureaucracy and innovation are usually very simple. This study intends to develop and test theories that explain the variation in the bureaucracy-innovation relationship in greater detail. The study considers two major indicators of bureaucratic control—centralization and formalization. Propositions are advanced on the effects of 14 contingency variables on the relationship between centralization and innovation and formalization and innovation. The propositions are then tested against the data from published studies in organizational innovation during the last three decades using a multivariate meta-analytic procedure. Results suggest avenues for further theory development and research, which we discuss.

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