WORK ENVIRONMENT PERCEPTIONS AS DETERMINANTS OF AFFECTIVE COMMITMENT AND PARTICIPATION IN FIRM-INTERNAL INNOVATION CONTESTS

Cross-divisional innovation efforts in large corporations became increasingly important during the last decade. Therewith, the knowledge-intense innovation process requires ICT support for organising organisational knowledge and facilitating collaboration. Firms are responding to these complex challenges by increasing efforts for implementation of modern innovation mechanisms. Among these mechanisms, innovation contests as the most frequently realised practical approach are assessed to have high potentials for companies. Here, important business challenges are broadcasted to a large group of potential volunteers within the firm. Afterwards, the community starts collaborating by interactively posting, discussing, and evaluating novel ideas. Taking a behavioural perspective, engagement and participation of contributors are critical. Theory highlights that perceptions of individual’s work environment positively influence their behaviour, which might be mirrored in participation intention. Supplementary, employees’ affective commitment is included as driver of participation. We surveyed employees of a specific subsidiary of a large German company in the telecommunications industry that is responsible for the management of the group’s entire product portfolio. The empirical analysis used structured equation modelling for testing the relationships between work environment perceptions, affective commitment, and participation intention. The results indicated especially that a strong organisational encouragement, supervisory encouragement, and affective commitment positively influence individuals’ participation intention