VW-Project "Innovation"

Firms in different countries vary in their innovative behavior, particularly in the amount of radical innovations they introduce to the market. Whereas firms in some countries focus on the exploitation of markets through incremental modifications and continuous improvements, there is a higher willingness to introduce radical changes in other countries. Creation and implementation processes that lead to radical and incremental innovations depend on different sets of organizational, team and individual antecedents. In this project we are aiming at identifying these factors and their respective contingencies in the USA and Germany.

There has been consensus that innovation research should include multiple levels of analysis. However, this is rarely achieved (Anderson, De Dreu, & Nijstad, 2004). Our theoretical and methodological approach takes into account multiple levels: organizations, teams and individuals. We examine relationships between constructs at different levels of analysis and integrate our findings in order to overcome barriers set by focusing on a single level of analysis.

We address national culture and markets (USA and Germany) as an additional level in which organizations, teams and individuals are nested. Our internationally comparative analyses are twofold. First, we are aiming at discovering mean differences in antecedents and processes of innovation between countries. Second, we intend to detect whether there are crossnational differences in the relationships between antecedents and processes as well as outcomes. The international focus of our research is reflected in the cooperation with leading experts in innovation and creativity research in the USA (Prof. Zahra and Prof. Farr).

The research team:

Prof. Andreas Bausch - International University Bremen, University of Jena

Prof. James L. Farr - Pennsylvania State University

Prof. Michael Frese - University of Giessen, London Business School

Prof. Shaker A. Zahra - Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota

funded by: