Firm creativity as a product of interpersonal dynamics and contextual influences

Since some decades, researchers have started devoting attention to the topic of organizational creativity. Consistently with the literature, studying organizational creativity should take into account different aspects: the process, the product, the person, and the situation, as all of them interact with each other in affecting creativity [Giustiniano et al. 2016; Woodman et al. 1993]. Following this, prior research has focused on the effect of personal characteristics on organizational creativity [Amabile 1988; Amabile et al. 1996], the organizational context, such as supportive and controlling supervision [Oldham and Cummings 1996], organizational creativity mechanisms [Bharadawaj and Menon 2000], and organizational and technology factors [Lin 2007]. In order to complement extant literature, this paper offers a model which grounds on the importance of individuals collecting knowledge from others for fostering creativity while looking at two contextual elements likely to affect organizational creativity: top management support [Lu et al. 2006; Tan and Zhao 2003] and the use of Information and Communication Technology [e.g. ICT use; Yeh et al. 2006; Zack 1999]. In so doing, we conceive organizational creativity as a function of the creative results of individuals interacting and exposed to contextual influences with the aim to address the following research question: «What is the relationship between knowledge collecting, ICT use and top management support in affecting organizational creativity?». For this purpose, we examine survey data of 362 employees from subsidiaries of five multinational corporations (MNCs) located in Italy and found that knowledge collecting, ICT use, and top management support are strongly and positively associated with organizational creativity, whereas high ICT use negatively moderates the relationship between knowledge collecting and the dependent variable.