Organizational Factors Influencing Innovation: An Empirical Investigation

It is widely acknowledged that managers will have to innovate and transform their businesses continuously to keep pace with the ever changing and evolving business landscape in the VUCA world (Volatility, Uncertainty, Complexity and Ambiguity).Innovation is no longer restricted to the process of creating something new from beginning to end but includes the capacity to quickly adopt externally created innovations that may be of benefit to the organization. The literature on innovation is wide, varied and diverse as it is an extensive concept which can be applied organization-wide. It is well documented that making paradigm shift requires the organization to embrace new ideas, facilitate its realization and institutionalize creativity and entrepreneurial spirit. But most organizations overlook the people dimension that is the workforce. The present study is an attempt to discover what managers opine about the organization-specific factors that influence innovation at the firm level. An exploratory investigation was carried out amongst managers in different organizations to identify what factors are important in impacting an organizations ability to manage innovation.