Job embeddedness and employee enactment of innovation-related work behaviours

Purpose In a highly competitive globalised environment the innovation behaviour of employees plays a key role in the economic viability and competitive advantage of organisations. In this context, developing our understanding of innovation work behaviour is important for the field of individual innovation and this is the focus of the study. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected using a survey from 549 employees in organisations operating in four major business centres in South Africa. Findings On-the-job embeddedness was positively and significantly related to innovation behaviours by employees in organisations operating in diverse industries. Consistent with the view that small organisations have a ‘behavioural’ innovation advantage over larger organisations, the size of the organisation moderated the positive relationship between on-the-job embeddedness and innovation behaviours. On-the-job embeddedness was more positively related to innovation behaviours in small organisations than in larger ...