The role of leader-member exchange in employees' open innovation practices and innovative work behaviour | |
| Author | Aungkhana Atitumpong |
| Call Number | AIT Diss. no.SM-17-06 |
| Subject(s) | Knowledge management Technological innovations--Management Supervision of employees Employees--Training of |
| Note | A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Management |
| Publisher | Asian Institute of Technology |
| Abstract | Due to today’s fast-paced, dynamic and competitive business environment, firms need to continuously strive to improve their performance. Innovation has become an important means to help firms gain a competitive advantage in industry. One way for firms to enhance their innovation performance is to capitalize on their own employees’ ability to innovate in order to deal with work-related challenges. To do this, firms need to pay attention to knowledge sources that employees use to generate and implement novel ideas. Although the importance of an open innovation model which relies on external knowledge sources has been frequently demonstrated, very few studies have paid attention to the micro-foundation of open innovation, specifically, to the knowledge search behaviour of employees. Therefore, this study is an extension of the literature on open innovation by examining the influences of employees’ openness to external knowledge sources on their creative ability in order to develop novel and useful ideas and consequent innovative work behaviour. Additionally, this study explores the role of leader-subordinate relationships in influencing subordinate employees’ selection of internal and external sources of knowledge and in moderating the effects of this selection on innovation outcomes. Drawing on the theories of open innovation, employee innovative work behaviour, and leader-member exchange, this study develops hypotheses on the direct, indirect, and moderating effects of leader-subordinate relationships on employees’ open innovation practices, their creative ability, and their innovativeness. These hypotheses are tested by hierarchical linear modeling of dyadic multi-source data from 337 knowledge workers (employees) and their 137 managers (leaders) of manufacturing firms in the electronics and automotive industries. The results suggest that employees’ openness to external knowledge sources enhances their creative ability, leads to the generation and implementation of creative ideas. The results also indicate that leader subordinate relationships drive employees away from external toward internal knowledge sources, but also that leader-subordinate relationships help employees to leverage externally acquired information into idea generation and implementation. In addition, the study identifies the main positive effects of leader-subordinate relationships on employees’ creative ability and innovation outcomes. |
| Year | 2017 |
| Type | Dissertation |
| School | School of Management |
| Department | Other Field of Studies (No Department) |
| Academic Program/FoS | Doctor of Philosophy in Management (Publication code = SM) |
| Chairperson(s) | Badir, Yuosre |
| Examination Committee(s) | Sununta Siengthai;Manukid Parnichkun; |
| Degree | Thesis (Ph.D.) - Asian Institute of Technology, 2017 |