The impact of psychological climate on employees’ innovative use of information systems: The moderating role of goal orientation

The objectives of this study are to investigate climates that could facilitate innovative use of information systems (IS), and to examine how psychological climate and individual goal orientation interact to promote employees’ innovative IS use. A total of 174 questionnaires were collected from enterprise resource planning (ERP) users from nine firms in China. Hierarchical regression analysis was used to test the research hypotheses. The empirical results suggest that (1) psychological climates (psychological autonomy climate and psychological innovation climate) are positively associated with IS users’ innovative use, (2) avoidance orientation weakens the relationship between psychological autonomy climate and innovative use, (3) learning orientation weakens the relationship between psychological innovation climate and innovative use, and (4) learning orientation strengthens the relationship between psychological autonomy climate and innovative use. This study contributes to IS literature by identifying psychological climate as a critical antecedent of innovative use. The findings also fulfil an identified need for more empirical studies of the combined effect of individual and environmental factors on employees’ innovative behaviour in the workplace, especially in the context of IS innovation.