Measuring Innovation Culture: Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Questionnaire

Aims: In this paper, we describe the design and validation of the Radiography of Innovation Culture-Multidimensional Questionnaire (RIC-MQ), aimed at studying innovation culture in organizations from the perspective of individuals in addition to taking context into account. It has been considered that innovation culture is essential to enhance the innovation capability of organizations, but studies of innovation culture adopting a holistic approach are scarce. Those identified in the literature tend to pay little attention to the influence of individuals within the organization or to social context.

Study Design: Cross-sectional study.

Place and Duration of Study: The questionnaire was sent to a sample of workers from three Spanish organizations (a public research organization, a public university and a private healthcare company) to gather data and analyse RIC-MQ psychometric properties. Data were collected between October 2011 and November 2011.

Methodology: Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were used to assess reliability, and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) to validate the RIC-MQ.

Results: The RIC-MQ includes three dimensions: general, organizational and individual. Reliability, construct validity and discriminant validity results are satisfactory. The three dimensions structure has been confirmed and 15 factors have been identified.

Conclusion: Results provide evidence supporting the adequacy of the questionnaire to measure innovation culture as a three dimensional construct from an individual perspective in a sample of Spanish workers.