GenAI and employee innovativeness: How employees' sensing capabilities and the capabilities to use and evaluate GenAI shape their innovative work behavior

Abstract

Innovation is critical for organizational success, with employees' innovative work behavior (IWB) forming a key microfoundation of firm-level innovation. While prior research has identified various antecedents of IWB, the role of generative AI (GenAI) remains underexplored. We address this gap by investigating how employees' capabilities to use and evaluate GenAI influence their IWB. Building on the dynamic capabilities view, we further explore how employees' capabilities to sense technological shifts shape the development of these GenAI capabilities and ultimately foster IWB. We test our model using survey data from 439 business consultants in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland, analyzed via partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). Our results show that employees' sensing capabilities promote both GenAI capabilities and directly enhance IWB. While employees' capability to evaluate GenAI promotes IWB, GenAI usage capability does not. Moreover, we identify a significant mediation pathway: employees' sensing capabilities enhance GenAI usage capability, which in turn enables GenAI evaluation capability and thereby fosters IWB. This study contributes to the IWB literature by exploring relevant yet understudied antecedents: employees' sensing capabilities and their capabilities to use and evaluate GenAI. Moreover, it extends emerging research on GenAI in innovation management by adopting a differentiated capability perspective and uncovering the distinct roles and interplay of employees' GenAI usage and evaluation capabilities.