Abstract—The importance of innovation is widely considered
to be of peak importance for today´s enterprises. However, the
understanding of one key element leading towards innovation
seems to be neglected in scientific research: The innovative
work behavior of individuals. Since Scott and Bruce
investigated the determinants and introduced a path model of
individual innovative work behavior twenty years ago (Scott
and Bruce, 1994) much time has passed. New and upcoming
trends in management, society and culture therefor could not be
considered but influence the concept.
This conceptual literature review therefor identifies,
evaluates, aggregates and classifies the developments and
trends from 2020 and 2021 regarding innovative work behavior.
This study analyzed 41 journal articles, which further cited
3,609 publications as references, in EBSCO and Elsevier. The
focus of the literature review was studies published in 2020 and
2021 and analyses that covered the topic of individual
innovative behavior. The defined research objectives were
framed by setting conceptual boundaries. Data was collected by
using inclusion/exclusion criteria to then validate and manually
review the research results.
The results of this review suggest that firstly there is a change
visible of the definition of the term itself, which has also
influenced the scales being used to be reviewed or shifting. In
addition the review shows how changes in working and
managing enterprises effect innovative work behavior. They
can be grouped into the three areas: role and impact of culture,
societal trends and new management trends. Thus the effects of
mindfulness, transformational leadership, usage of social media,
or corporate social responsibility on innovative work behavior
are better understood.
This conceptual literature research connects and aggregates
the various tendencies and supports new measurement models
introduced which might help to identify possible causes of these
discrepancies and provide direction for further research.
Thereby this conceptual literature review thus sheds light on
what otherwise seems to be a familiar concept.
Index Terms—IWB, innovative work behavior, mindfulness,
ethical leadership, transformational leadership.
Stephanie Wissmann is with the University of Salzburg,
Sigmund-Haffner-Gasse 18, 5050 Salzburg, Austria (e-mail:
stephanie.wissmann@stud.sbg.ac.at).
[PDF]
Cite: Stephanie Wissmann, "What Comes Before Innovation Kicks in: Contemporary Evidence and Future Directions of Innovative Work Behaviour of Individuals — A Conceptual Literature Review," International Journal of Innovation, Management and Technology vol. 12, no. 4, pp. 52-62, 2021.
Copyright © 2021 by the authors. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited (
CC BY 4.0).