The Innovation, the organizational culture, and the culture of innovation

When it comes to improving a firm's performance, what is the best? Should I focus on brainstorming to develop innovative ideas or create a cultural environment to foster innovation?

Innovating is not the most straightforward task. It does not just involve being creative or having a good idea in mind. There is a need to turn this idea into reality and assess whether it benefited society. The challenge is more difficult when one wants to achieve that goal within a complex organism. Different factors, such as processes, people, and departments, can cause some of the influence.

For the industry, innovating means overcoming several barriers, leaving a comfort zone, and moving towards a little-explored strategy, where the risks are greater than a non-innovative project, the results uncertain, and the costs high. That is why Porter understands that innovation occurs from pressures from the external environment, forcing the industry to seek ways to differentiate itself and remain competitive (GIBSON, 2011). For this reason, the subject is gaining more and more attention from the scientific and business community (CHENG; CHANG; LI, 2013).

Working with innovation within an organizational context is critical for economic growth and a sustainable and effective source to guarantee competitive advantage (DAMANPOUR; GOPALAKRISHNAN, 2001).

Leon and Anderson (2012) say that achieving success involves more than following procedures. For good performance in innovation, it is necessary to combine elements such as human performance, technology, the market, and the organizational environment (KHAIRUZZAMAN; ISMAIL, 2007)

However, it is not the innovation itself that will make the difference between one company and another

Innovating is the objective to be achieved; the differential is the organization's ability to be creative, flexible, and overcome obstacles to get where it wants to be. Yang (2012) argues that it is challenging to identify which innovations will be successful. Therefore, the capacity for innovation serves as the main driver of growth and wealth creation.

In recent years, many studies have shown that organizational culture is a critical success factor for innovation. Nagano, Stefanovitz, and Vick (2014) conducted a high interdependence between the organizational context and the innovation process's consistency

Cheng, Chang, and Li (2013) state that it is not enough to trust the background or believe that there is a single path to be successful with product innovation. The company must build alternative routes. The organizational culture has a paramount influence on technology innovation (Ying e Yang, 2013). It can be the critical element to either improve or inhibit innovation (Valencia, Valle e Jiménes, 2010).

In that sense, Bodley (1999) states that the definition of culture must go through the reflection of three components, what people think, what people do, and what is the product or result of their actions. In other words, what the leader does to instill in his team the culture of innovation, the employees' feedback about that, and what is the result in terms of innovative ideas, products, and services.

What about you? Do you know how to create an innovative culture?

Let us know your ideas!