Toward a multi‐dimensional measure of individual innovative behavior

Abstract

Individual level innovation studies often assess only one dimension of innovative behavior. As such, they do not sufficiently capture the richness of the construct of individual innovation. Develops and tests a multi‐dimensional measure of individual innovative behavior. Identifies descriptions of 289 innovation related behaviors and codes these into a hypothesized factor structure consisting of the following five dimensions: opportunity exploration, generativity, formative investigation, championing, and application. Structural equation modeling used on a sample of 225 employees from nine different organizations delivered a relatively poor fit between the hypothesized factor structure and respondents’ job behaviors. However, a single factor measure based on items representing all five factors resulted in an alpha reliability of 0.95 thus supporting a multi‐dimensional conceptualization of innovative behavior in general. Discusses implications for future research.