Proactive personality, organizational context, employee creativity and innovative capability: Evidence from MNCs and domestic corporations

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to develop and empirically examine antecedents of innovative capability in different organization categories of multinational corporations (MNCs) and domestic firms by applying the integrative theory, linking both personal and contextual factors in explaining employee creativity.

Design/methodology/approach

A conceptual framework has been developed based on previous research investigating the relationship between proactive personality, organizational context (hierarchy, communication, atmosphere and risk-taking orientation), employee creativity and, ultimately, corporate innovative capability. More remarkably, by applying multiple group analysis, this research emphasizes on the identification of distinct organizational and contextual characteristics in MNCs and native corporations that respectively affect organizations’ capacity to innovate via employee creativity.

Findings

The analysis revealed that four dimensions, communication, atmosphere, risk-taking orientation and employees’ proactive personality, have significant impacts on employee creativity and ultimately organizational innovative capability, whereas the proposed negative effect of hierarchy on employee creativity did not exist. This research also highlights the identification of respective organizational characteristics in MNCs and native corporations that affect their capacity to innovate via employee creativity. Given that proactive personality is a critical antecedent of innovative capability regardless of organization types, communication and atmosphere are statistically confirmed to be more influential antecessors in the MNC context, whereas for domestic corporations, risk-taking orientation is dominant.

Originality/value

This research is original and of great value for several reasons. First, it provides suggestion on a single personality trait, proactive personality, that correlates remarkably with creativity. Second, it examines the association between various organizational aspects and employee creativity to appraise and advance the results of previous classic studies done in the field. Last, it incorporates both personal and organizational factors in the evaluation of creativity and innovative capability not only in the context of multinational but also in domestic corporations.

Citation

Tai, H.T. and Mai, N.Q. (2016), "Proactive personality, organizational context, employee creativity and innovative capability: Evidence from MNCs and domestic corporations", International Journal of Organizational Analysis, Vol. 24 No. 3, pp. 370-389. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJOA-04-2015-0857