Examining the External Antecedents of Innovative Work Behavior: The Role of Government Support for Talent Policy

The innovative work behavior (IWB) or creativity of employees is regarded as the key to the sustainable innovation performance of an organization. In the field of human resource management (HRM), the relationship between an organization’s high-performance work system (HPWS) and IWB has been studied extensively. However, the current understanding of organizational external antecedents is limited. Our paper focuses on an extra-organizational government support factor, government support for talent policy (GSTP). Similar to HRM policies within an organization, GSTP also has an ability–motivation–opportunity framework that may influence the IWB of employees. We integrate the resource dependence theory, institutional theory, and theory of planned behavior (TPB) to propose a theoretical model of the mechanism of GSTP influence on IWB. Using a structural equation modeling approach, we empirically verify the hypotheses in a survey dataset of HRM practitioners in 152 technology-based enterprises in China. The results indicate that the external antecedent, GSTP, positively influences the innovative attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control of HRM practitioners in the organization. Innovative attitude and perceived behavioral control completely mediated the relationship between GSTP and innovative intention. Moreover, there is a distal indirect effect between GSTP and IWB. The paper contributes to filling a gap in the innovation policy literature. In practice, both HPWS and individual employees should be concerned about the possible role of GSTP.