Firm Strategies and Managerial Choices to Improve Employee Innovation Adoption in the Logistics Industry

Abstract

This study analyses the mediating role of organisational mindfulness and employee involvement in the relationships between competition strategy and supportive leadership and employee innovation adoption. To investigate this, a unique sample of 116 managers or owners of Dutch logistics companies completed a survey on innovation within their companies and the adoption of innovation by their employees. Results show that a firm’s competition strategy that values quality and not only costs, and the presence of organisational mindfulness, a firm’s cultural characteristic that makes employees alert to solve issues and improve effective cooperation, is positively related to employee innovation adoption. Moreover, the presence of supportive leadership has both a direct relation with employee innovation adoption, and an indirect one, namely mediated by organisational mindfulness. From the perspective that organisations must better adopt innovations to deal with continuous change, this study emphasizes the need to take into account the impact of the organisational characteristics of competition strategy and supportive leadership, and the organisational cultural characteristic of organisational mindfulness, along with the space that every organisation should utilize to make their own future strategic choices.