A scale for measuring organizational innovativeness is revalidated in the Indian context

What is it about?

The scale for organizational innovativeness developed by Wang and Ahmed (2004) became popular because the authors demonstrated its validity using confirmatory factor analysis. In this study, we investigate whether this scale is robust enough to be invariant across different cultures. Exploratory factor analysis was performed on data from Indian organizations to obtain the underlying factor structure of the innovativeness construct. Four factors with strong internal consistency and clear loadings were extracted—behavioural, process, strategic and product–market innovativeness. Their close correspondence to the five factors of Wang and Ahmed demonstrates the robustness of the organizational innovativeness construct. The 22-item scale demonstrates high reliability and convergent validity.

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Why is it important?

Wang and Ahmed's scale was developed by them using data from the UK. Our 'start from the scratch' approach, while using data from Indian organizations, revealed a factor structure very similar to the original scale. This shows that the construct of organizational innovativeness is structurally consistent and stable across two very different cultures.