Massey College of Business faculty Dr. Mark Schenkel, professor of entrepreneurship, and Dr. John Maslyn, professor of management, recently published a research study titled “Process improvement in SMEs: The impact of harmonious passion for entrepreneurship, employee creative self-efficacy, and time spent innovating” in the Journal of Small Business Strategy. Dr. Steven Farmer, a colleague from Wichita State University, co-authored the research.
The field study examines the interplay and influence of harmonious passion, creative self-efficacy and time spent innovating on process improvement in a small-to-medium enterprise (SME). Findings reveal that time spent innovating predicts the number of process improvement suggestions but also that time spent innovating is, itself, influenced by the employee’s level of harmonious passion for entrepreneurship. The influence of harmonious passion is moderated by creative self-efficacy yet, counter to expectations, the moderation is negative. That is, the positive relationship between harmonious passion and time spent innovating becomes weaker as creative self-efficacy becomes stronger. Collectively, the findings provide new insight into the complex relationships between passion, competency and entrepreneurial behavior in the processes employees follow to engage in workplace innovation. The study appears in the April 2019 issue.
