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Keywords Individual behaviour, Innovation, Measurement, Model
Abstract Individual Level innovation studies often assess only one dimension of innovative behavior. As such, they do not sufficiently capture the richness of the construct of individual innovation. Develops and tests a multi-dimensional measure of individual innovative behavior. Identifies descriptions of 289 innovation related behaviors and codes these into a hypothesized factor structure consisting of the following five dimensions: opportunity exploration, generativity, formative investigation, championing, and application. Structural equation modeling used on a sample of 225 employees from nine different organizations delivered a relatively poor fit between the hypothesized factor structure and respondents' job behaviors. However, a single factor measure based on items representing all five factors resulted in an alpha reliability of 0.95 thus supporting a multi-dimensional conceptualization of innovative behavior in general. Discusses implications for future research.
Individual innovation is a rich and elusive construct that has been defined and operationalized differently by various researchers (Goldsmith, 1986). Generally, the construct has been conceptualized in terms of individual characteristics, traits, behaviors, and products. For instance, Hurt et al. (1977) construe individual innovativeness as a generalized willingness to change. Kirton's (1976) Adaption-Innovation Inventory measures two distinct cognitive styles ranging from adaptors who solve problems within existing perceptual frames and innovators who restructure them. Jackson's (1976) Personality Inventory contains a subscale for measuring innovative disposition. Behavioral measures of individual innovation include West's (1987) measure of role innovation which captures how many changes an individual has initiated in his or her job in comparison to the last role occupant and Roger's (1983) operationalization of innovators as persons who adopt innovations before others. In addition, Amabile (1982), in the closely related field of individual creativity, employs a consensual assessment technique for measuring the creativeness of products produced by individuals through ratings given by product domain experts.
Despite this extensive work in conceptualizing and operationalizing individual innovation, however, the previous measures often assess only one dimension of innovative behavior. As such, they do not sufficiently capture the richness and potential multidimensionality of the construct. While some recent studies have used more comprehensive measures of individual innovation (see Scott and Bruce, 1994; 1998), little effort has been made to develop a richer measure with greater construct validity through a systematic review of the...