Relationships among team's organizational context, innovation speed, and technological uncertainty: An empirical analysis

This study examines the moderating effect of uncertainty on the relationships between three organizational context factors (i.e. top management support, clarity of goals and speed-based rewards) and innovation speed. It considers two aspects of uncertainty: technology novelty and technological turbulence. Findings from 183 new product projects indicate that top management support has a more positive effect on innovation speed under conditions of high technology novelty and high technological turbulence. Clarity of goals is more important to innovation speed under conditions of medium technology novelty and low technological turbulence. The results suggest a curvilinear, positive relationship between speed-based rewards and innovation speed. This is true for all the situations considered in this study, with the exception of environments characterized by high technological turbulence, where a negative curvilinear relationship was found between speed-based rewards and innovation speed. (c) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.