Innovation management in businesses: A model proposal over the hotel employees

The tourism sector, which has an significant share in the economies of the countries, is a sector that is rapidly affected by the changing and developing environmental conditions. The ability to innovate in tourism is an important tool to adapt to environmental conditions and achieve competitive advantage. In the literature, the types of innovation, the sources of innovation, the innovative behavior of employees, organizational concepts related to innovation and the outputs of the innovation management process are frequently researched. The aim of this study, which is based on the literature, is to reveal the concept of innovation and the factors that affect innovation in hotel businesses from the perspective of employees. For this purpose, in the study, the students who are studying in the distance education programs of Anadolu University and who are also hotel employees were determined as the research population. In the study, firstly, a scale was developed to measure innovation in hotel businesses, and then a model was created to determine the innovative behaviors of hotel employees and the factors affecting innovation in hotel businesses. The research data were collected with the online questionnaire technique, and the data obtained from a total of 546 hotel employees were analyzed. According to the results of the research, the factors affecting innovation in hotel businesses are innovative culture at the organizational level, leader support at the management level and creativity at the employee level. The model proposed in the research explains 50.7% of the innovative behavior of hotel employees, 73.5% of technical innovation in hotels and 65.8% of managerial innovation in hotels. The factor that directly and most affects innovation in hotel businesses is the innovative organizational culture perceived by hotel employees. On the other hand, the perceived leadership support and creative personality traits of the employees affect the innovation in the hotels through the innovative behaviors of the employees. Experienced employees in the sector perceive organizational culture as the most important antecedent of innovation. Finally, innovation in five-star hotels is shaped by the hotels' organizational structure.