Understanding Individuals’ Innovative Characteristics and Innovative Behaviors in Information Systems: A Mediating Role of Perceptions of Team Innovation Climate

This study explores the underlying mechanisms by which individual innovative characteristics and the perceived team innovation atmosphere affect employees’ innovative use (IU) of enterprise information systems. At the individual level, the model examines the impact of five variables on IU, namely, personal innovativeness of information technology (PIIT), innovative ability (IA), perceived team identity (PTI), and perceived job autonomy (PJA). Data were collected through scenario experiments and questionnaire surveys. A total of 409 volunteers from the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces in China were randomly divided into 133 work teams (with three to four people in each team) and asked to complete a specific task using one or more specific functions of Excel or SPSS within a given work time. After excluding teams that left the experiment for personal reasons and 34 invalid questionnaires, a regression analysis was conducted on 329 valid questionnaires to explore the interrelationships between variables. The findings demonstrate that PIIT and IA have a significant positive impact on IU. PTI and PJA partially mediate the relationship between PIIT and IU, whereas they fully mediate the relationship between IA and IU. The findings have improved our understanding of the role of individual innovative characteristics and team innovation climate in affecting individual behavior and could provide guidance for managers who hope to train employees and reform teams’ innovative support environments.