Firm innovativeness and work-life balance

ABSTRACT

Assessing firms’ innovativeness is not an easy task. The literature recognises a number of innovativeness indicators. Most of them are technology-based indicators which perform well in high-tech industries but might be ineffective in other industries where patenting is not usual or in which R&D budgets are low or not formalised. In this paper, we critically review previous innovativeness indicators and we propose a new approach to assess firm innovativeness that is based not on the role of technology but on that of people. This new approach focuses on the existence of work-life balance benefits that are connected with motivation, engagement and creativity in the workplace. We argue that this could be an effective complementary means to assess the innovativeness of firms. It could be combined with previously used indicators and might have considerable advantages such as their suitability for application in any kind of firm regardless of its technological profile.

KEYWORDS:

• Firm innovativeness
• work-life balance

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Joaquin Alegre is a Professor of Innovation Management at University of Valencia. His teaching and research interests focus on different issues dealing with the innovation process within organisations. Innovation, organisational learning and entrepreneurship are frequent topics in his research. He has published his findings at journals such as Research Policy, Technovation or International Journal of Management Reviews. At present, he chairs Organisational Learning, Knowledge and Capabilities scientific association. He serves as Associate Editor for Innovation and Entrepreneurship submissions at European Management Journal.

Susana Pasamar is an Associate Professor of Human Resource Management at University Pablo de Olavide. Her teaching and research interests deal with work-life balance implementation and human resource management strategy. She has published her findings at journals such as International Journal of Human Resource Management or Personnel Review. At present, she is the Director of the HRM Master at University Pablo de Olavide.

ORCID

Joaquín Alegre http://orcid.org/0000-0003-2723-6593

Additional information

Funding

The authors would like to thank the Spanish Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad [Projects ECO2015-69704-R and ECO2013-44274-P] for their financial support for this research.