Organizational Innovation: A Meta‑Analysis of Effects of Determinants and Moderators

A meta-analysis of the relationships between organizational innovation and 13 of its potential determinants resulted in statistically significant associations for specialization, functional differentiation, professionalism, centralization, managerial attitude toward change, technical knowledge resources, administrative intensity, slack resources, and external and internal communication. Results suggest that the relations between the determinants and innovation are stable, casting doubt on previous assertions of their instability. Moderator analyses indicated that the type of organization adopting innovations and their scope are more effective moderators of the focal relationships than the type of innovation and the stage of adoption. Several theories of innovation are examined in terms of the aggregated data.