ASSESSING ORGANIZATIONAL READINESS FOR INNOVATION: AN EXPLORATORY STUDY ON ORGANIZATIONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF INNOVATIVENESS

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to identify and present the key organizational characteristics of innovativeness which will provide an organization a better assessment of their readiness for innovation. An extensive examination of the existing literature was performed to identify the gaps in research on innovativeness, and to generate candidate characteristics for assessing an organization's readiness for innovation. The research employed focus groups with managers and professionals in an exploratory study as the first step in developing a measure for assessing characteristics for organizational innovativeness. A content analysis of the results revealed five underlying characteristics for organizational innovativeness. The most frequently cited characteristics were innovative organizational culture, structure and climate. This was followed by leadership and management style that support innovation, organizational support to innovate and change, creative human capital, and learning orientation and knowledge management respectively. These results are consistent with the existing literature in this area. Our results provide an important contribution to the developing body of innovation literature, and provide implications for organizations interested in assessing their readiness to innovate.