Organisational creative climate and knowledge sharing in fostering innovative work behaviour among startups in Malaysia / Rosintansafinas Munir

• Main Author: Rosintansafinas , Munir
• Format: Thesis
• Published: 2020
• Subjects: H Social Sciences (General); HD28 Management. Industrial Management
• Online Access: http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/12797/2/Rosintansafinas.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/12797/1/Rosintansafinas.pdf; http://studentsrepo.um.edu.my/12797/

Startups are crucial as it contributes to the thriving economy and national growth of Malaysia. Indeed, various government programmes and initiatives have been implemented over the years to flourish the startups entrepreneurial activities to ensure its sustainability. Noticeably, a significant number of startups failed within five years of business due to the high level of uncertainties and risks. In the new era of innovation, startups need to inculcate an innovative work behaviour to support the business performance as its creative and innovative mindset are the mechanisms to capture the competitive market rather than focus on the innovative product. Unfortunately, the level of individual innovative work behaviour in Malaysia is moderate particularly with startups having a low level of innovative work behaviour as compared to small enterprises which echoed warning sign of the startups eco-system. The understating of organisational creative climate is reckoned as having a powerful effect on employees’ creativity and innovativeness. In addition, the knowledge sharing practice is crucial as integrating knowledge among the small circle of entrepreneurial members can increase the performance both individually and collectively. Therefore, this study intends to provide an empirical verification to support the link between organisational creative climate, knowledge sharing, and the innovative work behaviour of startups. The quantitative approach was used to collect data from the entrepreneur (n=355) and employees (n=355) of startups in the services sector in Malaysia. The purposive sampling was used to select a sample of employees due to the limited number of creative and innovative employees in startups and obtain the desired information. The Partial Least Squares Structural Equation Modelling (PLS-SEM) was applied to test the hypothesised model. The results established that organisational creative climate is significantly correlated with the innovative work behaviour, and this organisational creative climate also affects knowledge sharing. In addition, the findings indicated that knowledge sharing has significantly influenced the innovative work behaviour of employees. On the other hand, the mediating roles of knowledge sharing was found to have significantly mediated the relationship between organisational creative climate and innovative work behaviour among startups in Malaysia. Hence, sharing information activities within the realm of startups need to be encouraged to gain valuable creative and innovative ideas. In addition, it is also suggested that startups practice a creative climate in enhancing the individual innovativeness. It is believed that the comprehensive use of resources could enhance the eco-system of startups. Overall, startups should well incorporate the sharing knowledge activities and harmonious creative climate in forming the best strategies that can adapt to the needs of markets and the competitiveness of startups. The findings have provided valuable input which helps towards better understanding specifically for the startups agencies and government to look further at the programmes as well as to enforce new favourable policies in improving the startups eco-system. Further, this study serves as a guideline for startups to re-design the organisation’s policies and structures for the new comprehensive management system. Subsequently, startups that practice effective knowledge sharing and harmonious creative climate will nurture the individual’s innovative work behaviour.