The effects of epistemic curiosity, job crafting and perceived organizational support on innovative work behavior: An application in five-star hotel enterprises

Innovative work behavior is regarded as a critical step for businesses seeking to highlight their creative and innovative aspects. The reflection of innovative work behavior, which includes employee actions that can result in a new idea, method, product, or service, is significant for hotel enterprises, particularly those active in service production. The reflection of employees' innovative behaviors throughout the enterprise also helps to the organization's innovativeness. This allows the enterprise to increase its share by making a difference in the market in a highly competitive environment. As a result, it is necessary to identify employees' innovative work behaviors and the variables influencing such behaviors. Accordingly, it is aimed to explore the effects of epistemic curiosity, job crafting and perceived organizational support on innovative work behavior. Furthermore, it is intended to examine whether employees' epistemic curiosity levels, job crafting levels, organizational support perceptions, and innovative work behaviors differ in terms of certain personal characteristics. The theoretical framework was established first, in accordance with these objectives. The survey technique was employed during the application phase. The population of the research was formed by five-star hotel employees in Turkey. Stratified sampling method was used and 1325 employees were reached in the study. As a result, it was discovered that employees' epistemic curiosity levels, job crafting levels, and organizational support perceptions all had a significant effect on their innovative work behaviors. Additionally, it was found that epistemic curiosity levels, job crafting levels, organizational support perceptions and innovative work behaviors of the employees differed in terms of their personal characteristics. In the tourism management literature, no study has been reached that previously addressed the effect of epistemic curiosity on innovative work behavior. Besides, no study has been found that examines epistemic curiosity, job crafting, perceived organizational support and innovative work behavior variables together. Accordingly, it is anticipated that the study findings will contribute to the literature.