A Multilevel Model for Individual Creativity and Innovative Behavior in Software Development

Innovation is important in software development because it enables developers to design novel solutions to non-routine problems. Most of the literature on software development, however, has focused on team-level innovation, even though individuals carry out most of the actual work. In this research, we investigate how to convert developer creativity into innovative behavior and identify team-level and individual-level factors that influence this transformation. A multilevel model is proposed to capture the innovative behavior of developers at the individual level. At the team level, we examine the impact of knowledge sharing on the creativity-innovative behavior relationship. At the individual level, we explore the role of different types of social media usage. The model will be validated by collecting data from companies that specialized in software development. Our research provides both theoretical and practical implications.