其他摘要 | Employee innovation is becoming increasingly important when organizations strive for sustainable competitive advantages. Extant research on social networks and employee innovation has mainly focused on how relational (e.g., tie strength) and structural (e.g., location in social network) features of social networks help or hinder employees to have better social network resources. The underlying assumption of these research is that employees occupying advantageous relation or structure in social networks will be able to access more social resources to identify innovation opportunities quicker and make better innovation. However, few studies have examined this hypothesis to explore how social resources per se influence employee innovative behavior and outcomes. Drawing on social resources theory, the present study empirically examines how social resources directly affect employee innovative behavior, and how employees transfer their social resources into substantial innovative outputs through their innovative behavior. We further explore in which how supervisor support for innovation moderates the effects. With the help of hybrid study design, the study first measured the relationship between core variables, namely, social resources, innovative behavior, innovative outputs, and supervisor support for innovation by quantitative research, and then found real cases to support logical derivations from theory to quantitative research results in this research model via qualitative interviews.
The quantitative study was conducted in the Asia Research and Development (R&D) center of a large high-tech organization. 154 employees were invited to complete a questionnaire survey. The social resources that employees could utilize during innovation, their innovative behavior, and their direct supervisor support for innovation were measured. With company's archival data, their objective innovative output (the number of patents or invention disclosures) was measured. We found that social resources for innovation significantly and positively predict employee innovative behavior, and further improve innovative output (the number of patents and invention disclosures) via indirect effect of innovative behavior. Supervisor support for innovation significantly moderates the impact of social resources on innovative behavior. When supervisor support for innovation is strong, social resources' impact on employee innovative behavior is strengthened. Supervisor support for innovation also moderates the indirect effect of social resources on innovative output through innovative behavior. When supervisor support for innovation is strong, the indirect effect is stronger.
In the subsequent qualitative study, a total of 72 researchers from this R&D center were interviewed. Through the interviews, we identified what social resources were needed in innovation practice, and researchers sought relevant social resources based on innovative objectives rather than social network relational or structural perspectives. In this study, the theoretical derivation of how social resources affect employee innovative behavior was reflected in innovation practice, that is, social resources accelerate the flow of information to promote idea generation; employees with rich social resources are more likely to influence key decision makers when promoting ideas; employees with rich social resources can obtain identity and recognition to ensure that more resources are used for idea implementation. Qualitative research provided examples of the ways that supervisor support for innovation amplifies the influence of social resources on innovative behavior, and how employee innovative behavior produces more innovative results, which makes the main findings of quantitative research more solid.
From the perspective of social resources, this study directly reveals the mechanism and boundary conditions of how employees' social resources promote employee innovation, and has made important theoretical contributions to the research of employee innovation and social networks. Practically, it has practical significance for individual development and organization's innovation management. |
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