Internal impediments of organizational innovation: An exploratory study

Academic research and practical experiences have proved that innovation is a critical issue facing the dynamic fierce competition in the global marketplace; therefore, organizations decided to devote resources to promote and encourage innovative behaviors. However, lots of challenges might impede the success of organizational innovation; in order to prevent unnecessary failure, companies should not thoughtlessly implement organizational innovation programs. For that reason, understanding internal impediments would be fruitful for companies trying to improving innovative performance. The only way to smoothly accomplish organizational innovation is to eliminate all possible impediments. Based on the review of previous studies about the effects of innovative behaviors on organizational performance, the authors tried to figure out possible impediments of failed innovative activities and analyzed the causality between different impediments and innovative behaviors. The results separated organizational innovation into three stages: innovative intention, innovative process, and innovative outcome. Four direct impediments and four indirect impediments were found in the current study. By thoroughly understand the internal impediments; practitioners might get better chance to enjoy the success of organizational innovation.