On antecedents of organizational innovation: how the organizational learning, age and size of a firm impact its organizational innovation

Abstract

The main goal of this thesis is to increase the understanding of how a company can improve its organizational innovation performance. Organizational innovation in this thesis means innovation in management practices, workplace organization, and the external relations of a firm.

The focus was on how a firm’s age and size as well as the antecedents that are considered as the components of organizational learning impact the organizational innovation in a firm. To collect the data for investigating the phenomenon in question a quantitative survey method was applied.

The data was collected in Latvia and the Central and Northwestern Economic Regions of Russia. The regression analysis and the structural equation modeling methods have been employed for the purpose of the data processing. The study provides evidence that the organizational innovation performance in a firm is exposed to the components of the organizational learning as well as to a firm’s age. The main contribution of the study is the input into increasing the understanding of the theory of organizational innovation. In comparison with the previous studies in order to provide more focused research this study breaks down organizational innovation into subtypes and analyzes the last ones separately. The study also makes an attempt to compare a firm’s organizational innovation in two countries at the level of specific practices. These two countries are Latvia and Russia, which are rarely in focus in the research on organizational innovation.

The results of the study can be useful for firms’ managers and policymakers for better understanding how to make a company more efficient in terms of innovation performance.