A Systematic Review of Employee Innovative Behaviour Research in Hospitality and Tourism Contexts

Abstract

This dissertation systematically examines and synthesises existing studies of hospitality employee innovative behaviour in terms of the key theories, antecedents, and research contexts. The study contributes to the mapping out what is already known and what needs to be further explored by providing an essential and long-overdue analysis of previous research on employee innovative behaviour in hospitality and tourism contexts. This study reviewed 151 empirical and four non-empirical studies published in hospitality and non-hospitality journals from 1989 to 2021. Data were sourced from Google Scholar, EBSCOhost, and Science Direct databases. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) was utilised as a base strategy for the selection criteria to identify individual studies. Microsoft Excel was used to systematically code and categorise the abstracted data into different categories. The findings showed that there has been a significant increase in the use of quantitative study design since 2010. The trend of using varieties of theoretical foundations to examine employee innovative behaviour has also increased. Despite this, the findings revealed that the phenomenon of employee innovative behaviour has been examined using fragmented theoretical approaches. The cross-tabulation analysis identified that Asia has been the dominant research context for researchers and that most of the studies were conducted in the hotel industry. The findings also indicated that antecedents linked to national cultures or religions have also been under-examined. This study could be an “all-inclusive” source of information that assists researchers to identify (1) what has been examined, (2) what is under-examined, and (3) potential gaps that could guide the direction of future research. Industry practitioners could use the synthesised information from this study to develop policies and procedures to enhance employees’ innovative behaviour in their organisations.