Employee Innovative Work Behavior: A Missing Piece in Understanding Family Firm Innovation

Although researchers have highlighted the importance of innovation for the continuity of a family firm, most of this work is centered on understanding business factors or leadership factors that influence the organization's innovation process. One area that has received less attention is the role of the nonfamily employee and their behaviors in facilitating innovation within family firms. This conceptual paper discusses the importance of employee innovative work behaviors and the factors that can facilitate and hinder these behaviors within the family firm. We build on literature from the family business, organizational behavior, and leadership to develop a theoretical model to explain how leadership and culture influence employee innovative behaviors. We also outline how communication actions within the organization can also play a role in determining employees' innovative behaviors. Implications and contributions of the model are discussed.