Antecedent of organizational creativity and innovation : a differentiating perspective

Abstract

There is an intuitive understanding within the research field of organizational creativity and innovation that the two phenomena are closely related. The literature is even to a large extent characterized by an interchangeable use and operationalization of the two concepts. This study attempted to separate the two and investigate different antecedents that have been identified in the literature as important for both organizational creativity and innovation. The attempt was more concretely to investigate these prerequisites along two pathways with clearly differentiated operationalizations of the two concepts. The antecedents investigated were risk tolerance, leader- member- exchange, access to resources and constructive controversy. Regression analysis indicated that the different factors might have varying impact on respectively organizational creativity and innovation. While constructive controversy and leader-member-exchange had a positive effect on creativity, access to resources showed a strong positive effect on innovation. Lastly, risk tolerance had a positive effect on both creativity and innovation.