Individual and Contextual Dynamics of Innovation-Use Behavior in Organizations

The innovation literature suggests that both organizational context and individual characteristics influence employees' innovation-use behavior. However, the question of how contextual factors and individual characteristics operate together to predict innovation-use behavior has remained ambiguous. This study examined 2 plausible ways that individual and perceived contextual variables can interplay to predict innovation-use behavior: mediation and moderation. The results, based on 191 employees of an electronics company, showed that 2 of the 3 relationships between perceived organizational context and innovation-use behavior were partially mediated by individual characteristics. In addition, in 1 of the 3 relationships examined, individual and contextual variables interacted to predict innovation-use behavior. This study contributes to the literature by conceptually integrating and empirically investigating the interplays between individual and contextual factors beyond their independent contributions to innovation-use behavior.