Understanding the Internal and External Communicative Drivers of Organizational Innovativeness

Abstract

Organizational and communication studies have established that communication plays a critical role in organizational innovation, because internal and external communication allows individuals, groups, and organizations to recombine existing knowledge into new ideas. In light of this, this research re-directs our attention to the specific communicative antecedents of an organization’s overall propensity for innovation. Survey data from 293 nonprofit organizations showed that interorganizational partnership diversity, knowledge sharing via the use of information communication technologies (ICTs), and entrepreneurial orientation affect organizational innovativeness, with differential effects on administrative innovativeness and technological innovativeness. Specifically, interorganizational partnership diversity promoted administrative innovativeness but had an inverted U-shaped curvilinear relationship with technological innovativeness. Effective ICT-mediated knowledge sharing improved technological innovativeness only. The combination of interorganizational partnership diversity and EO (i.e., proactiveness) increased administrative innovativeness. However, interorganizational partnership diversity and effective knowledge sharing indirectly influenced technological innovativeness via proactiveness. This study advances research on organizational innovation, ICTs, and interorganizational networks.

Rethinking Group Dynamics in Public Organizations: Starting Point for Behavioral Public Strategy Research

“…A deeper understanding of these domains is crucial to foster interactions within a strategic decision making team and to advance the application of innovation methods, including public behavioral strategy. This is supported by findings from other scholars who suggest that the quality of internal and external communication processes (Zainun et al, 2020;Fu, 2020;Mitu, 2021), group cohesion (Van der Voet & Steijn, 2021) and climate (Hassan & Rohrbaugh, 2012;Mutonyi et al, 2020a). These processes are key to accepting changes and developing innovation behaviors within the organization.…”

“…According to empirical findings in the given domains, it can be said that employee performance and their willingness to accept new ideas and changes within the organization often correlate with the quality of communication (Zainun et al, 2020;Fu, 2020;Mitu, 2021), group cohesion (Carless & De Paola, 2000;Van der Voet & Steijn, 2021), and climate (Hassan & Rohrbaugh, 2012;Mutonyi et al, 2020a). However, these studies overwhelmingly analyzed the quality of the internal processes of the investigated issues quantitatively in the given organizations.…”

Entrepreneurial Orientation as a New Aggressive Business Model in the Family and Non-Family Firms: A Literature Review

“…Approaches to the innovation philosophy can be defined as continuous innovations in new products, technologies, and procedures to focus on customer and customer satisfaction (Berthon et al, 2004). Fu (2020) argues that innovation is one of the three dimensions of entrepreneurial orientation (innovation, proactivity, and risk-taking). And the innovation orientation of an organization covers the innovation activities of that organization.…”

Nonprofits' external stakeholder engagement and collaboration for innovation: A typology and comparative analysis

“…Most past studies focused on identifying intraorganizational attributes that contribute to innovation, such as age, size, and internal communication networks (Jaskyte, 2013; Monge et al, 1992; Shier et al, 2019). Meanwhile, a growing body of research has considered how factors external to organizations can influence innovations, including the role of external stakeholders such as community groups (Lewis, 2011) and collaborators (Fu, 2020; Lurtz & Kreutzer, 2017). This line of research and relevant theories suggest three main ways in which external stakeholders can impact organizational innovation.…”