Research Policy 2020
Integrating Home and Work: How the Work Environment Enhances Household-Sector Innovations
Abstract
The benefits that consumer innovators create for their environment are well established, unlike the benefits that they gain from it. This quantitative empirical study investigates how job-related resources (i.e., knowledge, energy and inspiration acquired at work) spill over into household-sector (HHS) innovations. Drawing on conservation of resources theory, the study (1) sheds light on how job innovativeness and job boredom, as two examples of high vs. low job requirements, may contribute to the acquisition of job-related resources, and (2) explores how the job-related resources affect the outcomes of HHS innovation efforts developed during leisure time. Whereas being confronted with innovativeness at work increases the acquisition of job-related resources, experiencing boredom at work only benefits consumer innovators who have longer organizational tenures. Furthermore, the job-related resources positively affect HHS innovation outcomes in terms of novelty, general use value, and technical feasibility. Thus, results indicate that consumer innovators’ work environment can enhance the development of HHS innovations by fostering innovativeness but also ensuring realization. These insights underscore the importance of studying consumer innovators’ work environment to find ways to encourage HHS innovation activities.
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.respol.2020.104139
- Sources
- semanticscholar openalex