Farag Edghiem

Purpose: this study aims to measure the intention of the University of Baghdad’s academics to conduct knowledge sharing behaviour. The study also opts to contribute towards addressing the significant gap in the literature on knowledge sharing practices within Iraqi higher education institutions; involving distinct management procedures, infrastructure, as well as cultural and political implications.
Design/methodology/approach: the University of Baghdad academics’ intention to conduct knowledge sharing behaviour is measured by testing the theory of planned behaviour (Ajzen, 1991) three factors of intention determinants including; attitude towards knowledge sharing, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. A survey questionnaire was distributed among a sample of 226 academics in the University of Baghdad whereas the collected data was analysed through the IBM software SPSS.
Originality/value: the study findings provide a novel insight and contribute to bridging the literature gap by highlighting the intention of the University of Baghdad academics to conduct knowledge sharing behaviour.
Practical implications: the outcome of this research may guide policy-makers in the concerned international organisations as well as in Iraqi higher education institutions by revealing the extent to which the University of Baghdad academics are prepared to conduct knowledge sharing behaviour, of which would assist in making informed decisions on knowledge sharing practices.

Purpose – this paper aims to review the main contributions in the literature on service employees’ role in initiating innovation. By adopting a synthetic approach, we also aim to highlight the variant metaphors denoting service employees’ innovative conduct within the service innovation literature.
Design/methodology/approach – the review of literature implicated diversified inclusion criteria when researching multiple databases for scholarly manuscripts; by adopting the synthesis approach to service innovation, it was possible to identify themes of interest that are relevant to service employees’ innovative behaviour in service and management literature.
Originality/value – considering the dominance of the synthesis approach to service innovation (Drejer, 2004; Nijssen et al., 2006), the emerging themes within the service innovation literature indicate further evidence of the application of the synthesis perspective. The highlighted main themes of creativity, innovative behaviour and service encounter-based innovation shared a synthesis orientation.
The review of the existing body of literature also reflected considerable paucity in empirical studies underpinning service employees’ role in initiating innovation where there is little understanding of the nature and impact of this role. Multiple terminologies exist inconsistently in the service literature denoting service employees’ innovative conduct as the research on the topic continues to evolve.
The review outcome also revealed that the present literature doesn’t adequately distinguish between the service industry’s cross-sector differences when determining service employees’ innovative conduct rather it adopts a collective approach that may not be applicable across all service industry subsectors.
Practical implications – this paper provides a useful conceptual classification of the body of literature dealing with service employees’ role in initiating innovation that may help guide future research. The review of the literature included in this paper may help connecting the inconsistent metaphors of service employees’ innovative behaviour in the existing literature and highlight the gaps to be addressed by future studies.

Purpose – Innovation in services continues to be recognised as a mean of retaining a competitive advantage whilst the role of service employees in initiating innovation is increasingly signified in terms of enhancing customers’ perceptions of quality and also suggesting ideas that can lead to innovations (Rubalcaba et al., 2012). The input of service employees into the innovation process is perceived inconsistently in the literature, reflecting a lack of theoretical uniformity to determine employee-driven service innovation. An emerging line of research, however, focused on employees’ role in service encounter-based innovation (i.e. Toivonen and Tuominen, 2009; Sundbo and Toivonen, 2011); the service encounter-based innovation conception was originally derived from the user-driven innovation theme in the innovation management literature and emerged as a contemporary research line in the service innovation literature. Service encounter-based innovation denotes service innovation as developing from ideas, knowledge or practices derived from frontline service employees’ meetings with users during the service delivery process (Sørensen and Jensen, 2012).
Respectively, this paper intends to investigate further the role of employees in initiating service encounter-based innovation through the lens of innovative behaviour proposition. By doing so, this paper also aims to compare and contrast the research findings with the theoretical framework of (Sørensen et al., 2013) that determined an integrative relationship between practice-based and management directed innovation.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case-study research strategy, which compared between two case studies of personal-interactive service companies, was applied to achieve the objectives of the study. The application of qualitative case-study research allowed closer assessment and observation while the researcher was directly present within the service delivery environment. The combining of qualitative research methods, such as semi-structured interviews, review of archival records and direct observation, was applied to congregate evidence of employees’ innovative behaviour patterns from multiple perspectives.
Originality/value – This paper adds further insight by verifying the nature of service employees’ innovative behaviour and its contribution in initiating service innovation. The findings also identify the influence of contextual determinants in nurturing or inhibiting service employees’ innovative behaviour.
Practical implications – Practical implications and recommendations for management to nurture service employees’ innovative behaviour are presented based on the study findings. The practical recommendations provide managers working within personal-interactive service companies with sensible measures to nurture innovative behaviour among employees.
Keywords – Service Encounter-Based Innovation, Service Employees’ Innovative Behaviour, Creativity, Formal and Informal Innovative Behaviour.

Purpose – Innovation in services continues to be recognised as a mean of retaining a competitive advantage whilst the role of service employees in initiating innovation is increasingly signified in terms of enhancing customers’ perceptions of quality and also suggesting ideas that can lead to innovations (Rubalcaba et al., 2012). The input of service employees into the innovation process is perceived inconsistently in the literature, reflecting a lack of theoretical uniformity to determine employee-driven service innovation. An emerging line of research, however, focused on employees’ role in service encounter-based innovation (i.e. Toivonen and Tuominen, 2009; Sundbo and Toivonen, 2011); the service encounter-based innovation conception was originally derived from the user-driven innovation theme in the innovation management literature and emerged as a contemporary research line in the service innovation literature. Service encounter-based innovation denotes service innovation as developing from ideas, knowledge or practices derived from frontline service employees’ meetings with users during the service delivery process (Sørensen and Jensen, 2012).
Respectively, this paper intends to investigate further the role of employees in initiating service encounter-based innovation through the lens of innovative behaviour proposition. By doing so, this paper also aims to compare and contrast the research findings with the theoretical framework of (Sørensen et al., 2013) that determined an integrative relationship between practice-based and management directed innovation.
Design/methodology/approach – A qualitative case-study research strategy, which compared between two case studies of personal-interactive service companies, was applied to achieve the objectives of the study. The application of qualitative case-study research allowed closer assessment and observation while the researcher was directly present within the service delivery environment. The combining of qualitative research methods, such as semi-structured interviews, review of archival records and direct observation, was applied to congregate evidence of employees’ innovative behaviour patterns from multiple perspectives.
Originality/value – This paper adds further insight by verifying the nature of service employees’ innovative behaviour and its contribution in initiating service innovation. The findings also identify the influence of contextual determinants in nurturing or inhibiting service employees’ innovative behaviour.
Practical implications – Practical implications and recommendations for management to nurture service employees’ innovative behaviour are presented based on the study findings. The practical recommendations provide managers working within personal-interactive service companies with sensible measures to nurture innovative behaviour among employees.

Knowledge has been frequently substantiated as a determinant of employees’ ability to innovate. Yet, the review of literature reveals that the role of knowledge and its influence on employees has been less researched and understood from a service innovation perspective. This study aimed to explore the nature and role of knowledge relevant to service employees’ individual innovative behaviour and leading to initiating innovation within the sub-sector of personal-interactive services. A case study research method was applied to achieve the research objectives that examined and compared two personal-interactive service environments of two hotel properties. The study outcome contributes to service innovation research by identifying the nature and ancillary role of knowledge and also by unravelling four patterns of employees’ individual innovative behaviour.