A Proposal for a Standard With Innovation Management System

Could the Leadership Range of the Entrepreneur Help the
Small Firm’s Innovation Performance Through the
Employees’ Organizational Commitment?: Empirical
Evidence and Gaps From the Literature
Izold Guihur and Gilles Marcoux
Université de Moncton, Moncton, Canada
izold.guihur@umoncton.ca
gilles.marcoux@umoncton.ca
Abstract: In an effort to bring the innovation capabilities of the firm from the individual innovativeness of the
entrepreneur to the collective knowledge synergy of the organization, this research aims at understanding how
the leadership range of the entrepreneur may foster the employees’ commitment and their contribution in
knowledge to the innovation process. Most of the time, entrepreneurs are involved in small firms where they rely
on their own abilities to innovate. Although, research has shown that the involvement of non-managerial
employees contributed to the innovation performance of the firm, such involvement remains underused in most
small firms. Indeed, small firms seldom use human resource practices that can contribute to organizational
innovativeness for they are small in size and limited in resources. In general, their human resource practices are
informal and strongly tied to the entrepreneur’s leadership. Past research has shown that leadership influenced
the organizational commitment of employees, which in turn, influenced the innovation performance of the
organisation. Some suggest that transformational leadership informally sustain human resource practices such
as psychological empowerment and managerial coaching that are known to support the organizational
commitment of the employees. Such co-location of right and knowledge at the employees' site could then
contribute to their participation in the innovation process. Because of the lack of formal human resources
practices in small firms, it becomes pertinent to look at the entrepreneur's leadership in order to foster the
involvement of employees in the process of innovation. Based on the review of empirical evidence and the
identification of knowledge gaps, a model is proposed on the role of transformational leadership to sustain
psychological empowerment and managerial coaching in order to foster employees' affective commitment in the
innovation performance of the firm. Future research is intended, based on structural equation modelling of the
theoretical propositions.
Keywords: innovation performance, organizational commitment, leadership, psychological empowerment,
managerial coaching, small firm
1. Challenges for the small firms’ innovation performance
Entrepreneurs innovate as they create and bring new value to the market. However, it becomes
important for those involved in continuously changing environments, typical of the knowledge
economy, to maintain their innovation performance. Innovation, defined asthe recombining of
knowledge (Callon 1995), allows for the renewal of the firm’s offer and contributes to their distinction
in a turbulent environment. In other words, the ability to innovate determines in large part the
competitiveness of the firm for this dynamic capability becomes a valuable intangible advantage
within the knowledge economy (Eisenhardt and Martin 2000).
Most of the time, however, entrepreneurs are involved in small firms where they rely on their own
abilities to innovate (Andries and Czarnitzki 2011). In fact, Industry Canada (2008) reports that 98% of
the Canadian businesses employ less than 100 employees. A similar landscape is observed in
Europe as well as in Australia (Barrett and Mayson 2007). Still, scholars have questioned such
dependence on one’s sole ideas because it may jeopardize the organization’s innovation performance
if the entrepreneur lacks ideas or when these are not confronted to others to evaluate their fitness to
the market needs (Klaaset al. 2010). It would thus be of interest for the entrepreneur to explore and
exploit ideas beyond oneself and to enable the contribution of the organization’s members to the
collective pool of ideas at the basis of the innovation process. Indeed, research has shown that the
involvement of non-managerial employees contributed to the innovation performance of the firm,
during process innovation especially (Andries and Czarnitzki 2011).
Yet, the involvement of non-managerial employees in the innovation process remains underused in
most small firms (De Winne and Sels 2005). Some entrepreneurs may overlook the potential of their
employees’ ideas while being focused on their own personal ideas to seize opportunities. But the
main problem resides in that small firms seldom use human resource practices that can contribute to
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