Assessing employees' perceptions of factors influencing innovation management in a nigerian textile firm

Abstract

In today’s dynamic environment, innovation management (IM) is a common phenomenon for organisations or firms to become successful. Even though many studies have been conducted on IM, but studies on internal organisational factors that influence IM activities are limited. The problems with IM are associated with slow IM process for products developed due to increasing constant fear for change, fear of failure, poor working culture, limited resources and risk issues involved with unclear goals for execution. Using behavioral theory of firm view (BTF) and resource based view theory (RBV), the study investigated factors that influence the perceptions among employees and impact of IM activities. It also determined the direct and indirect mediating role of creativity in the relationship between organisational internal factors and IM. A mixed method research design was applied to obtain data from employees of a textile firm in Nigeria. Using stratified random sampling method, 193 employees were selected to answer the survey questionnaire. For the interview data, purposeful sampling was used to select eight senior employees of the firm who are in charge of IM activities and responsible for employees’ tasks. Results of regression analysis showed that there is a direct relationship of factors influencing IM of the firm. In addition, the findings showed that top management commitment factors have the most crucial role indicating a very strong influence towards IM. Besides that, creativity has a direct mediating effect on IM, while the indirect mediating effect indicates a partial mediation relationship between the organizational factors and IM. Qualitative findings verified the findings of quantitative data and identified other supporting and challenging factors to overcome IM problems. The findings illustrated the importance of the role of employees and how organisational internal factors can enhance the competitiveness and success of firms in Nigeria. Based on these findings, several theoretical contributions and further insights on influencing and challenging factors for IM research are recommended. Finally, it is suggested that more future research be carried out to explore IM in the service sector and in different contexts.