Employee-driven digital innovation: A systematic review and a research agenda

Abstract

As the digital shift in society affects both private and public organizations, the role of digital innovation is critical if digital transformations are to succeed. Research has developed models to explain how digital innovation affects organizations and societies. During the last ten years, employee-driven innovation has emerged as a new approach to explain innovation. Through this systematic literature review, we offer insight into the intersection between employee-driven innovation and digital innovation, and we coin the term employee-driven digital innovation. We review 58 studies published at this research intersection since 2010. The findings show a research field of growing interest that is divided into two main streams of research, one focused on the outcomes of employee-driven digital innovation and the other on the use of digital tools to support employee-driven innovation processes. We describe this research area, identify critical research gaps and propose future research directions.