Process improvement in SMEs: The impact of harmonious passion for entrepreneurship, employee creative self-efficacy, and time spent innovating

Authors

  • Mark T. Schenkel Belmont University
  • Steven Farmer Wichita State University
  • John M. Maslyn Belmont University

Abstract

Harmonious passion, creative self-efficacy, and time spent innovating are examined as antecedents to innovative process improvement suggestions in a field study of 213 employees in an SME. Results show that time spent innovating, or thinking about and experimenting with new ideas, predicts the number of process improvement suggestions.  Time spent innovating is, itself, influenced by the employee’s level of harmonious passion for entrepreneurship, moderated by creative self-efficacy. Counter to expectations, the moderation was negative; such that the positive relationship between harmonious passion and time spent innovating became weaker as creative self-efficacy became stronger. The results provide insight into the complex relationships between passion, competency, and entrepreneurial behavior and suggest the need for additional focus on the processes employees follow to engage in workplace innovation. In doing so, this study makes three specific contributions. First, it provides a fundamental step toward understanding the role harmonious passion plays in innovation in an SME context. Second, it begins to explain the relationship between individuals’ thoughts, behaviors, and outcomes in the nascent stages of innovation in SMEs. Finally, it provides insight into the heretofore unexplored link between passion and creative self-efficacy in fostering innovative behavior. 

Author Biographies

  • Steven Farmer, Wichita State University

    W. Frank Barton Distinguished Chair in Business

  • John M. Maslyn, Belmont University

    Professor

Downloads

Published

2019-04-08

Issue

Vol. 29 No. 1 (2019)

Section

Articles

License

The Journal of Small Business Strategy (the “Publisher”) and the Author(s) agree as follows:
 
1.Author(s) hereby grant to Publisher all right, title, and interest in and to the Work, including copyright to all means of expression by any method now known or hereafter developed, including electronic format. If Publisher does not publish the Work within two (2) years of the Effective Date, copyright shall revert back to the Author. Publisher agrees to always credit Author(s) as the author(s) of the Work.
 
2.Publisher hereby grants Author a royalty-free, limited license for the following purposes, provided the Work is always identified as having first been published by Publisher.
    •The right to make and distribute copies of all or part of the Work for use in teaching;
    •The right to use all or part of the material contained in the Work in a book by the Author(s), or in a collection of the Author(s)’s work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work internally at the Author(s)’s place of employment, and for promotion and any other non-commercial purposes;
    •The right to use figures and tables from the Work for any purpose;
    •The right to make presentations of material from the Work;
    •The right to use and distribute the Work on the Author(s)’s Web site and on the Author(s)’s university’s institute repository;
Such license shall be effective when the Work is first published in the Journal of Small Business Strategy.
 
3.The Author(s) represents and warrants that the Work: (a) is the Author(s)’s original work and that Author(s) has full power to enter into this agreement; (b) does not infringe the copyright or property right of another; (c) contains no materials which is obscene, libelous, defamatory or violates another’s civil right, right of privacy, or is otherwise unlawful; and (d) has not been previously published, in whole or in part. Author(s) shall indemnify and hold Publisher harmless against loss or expenses arising from breach of any such warranties.

How to Cite

Process improvement in SMEs: The impact of harmonious passion for entrepreneurship, employee creative self-efficacy, and time spent innovating. (2019). Journal of Small Business Strategy (archive Only), 29(1), 71-84. https://libjournals.mtsu.edu/index.php/jsbs/article/view/1153