Purpose: The purpose of this research is to better understand the human aspects of open innovation in small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by exploring how intrinsic and extrinsic motivation influence enjoyment in helping others, knowledge sharing and knowledge hiding and consequently firms' open innovation.Design/methodology/approach: We collected data with a survey among CEOs in 140 SMEs and performed confirmatory factor analysis applying structural equation modeling in IBM SPSS AMOS (v. 26).Findings: Results reveal that intrinsic motivation is positively associated with helping behavior and knowledge sharing and negatively associated with knowledge hiding. We also confirm the positive relationship between extrinsic motivation and knowledge sharing. Moreover, we find that knowledge sharing increases and knowledge hiding decreases the firm-level open innovation. Especially in high-tech industry, knowledge sharing is a vital determinant of open innovation.Originality/value: Responding to the calls for a deeper understanding of the individual-level factors that determine organization-level open innovation, in this research we focus on the human aspect of open innovation in SMEs. Open innovation is a widely recognized and implemented concept among large corporations and facilitates better understanding of new technological and market developments both within and outside of organizations. However, understanding of the microfoundations of open innovation in smaller firms is still limited, but this steam of research is growing rapidly.

Purpose: Drawing on role theory, the purpose of this paper is to investigate a curvilinear relationship between employee’s perceived overall time pressure and creativity. Apart from this, it explores a three-way interaction of perceived time pressure, satisfaction with work-family balance (SWFB), and leader-member exchange (LMX) on creativity.Design/methodology/approach: The paper reports a quantitative study of 251 employees from a European company. An online survey was used to collect data. The proposed hypotheses were tested using moderated hierarchical regression analysis.Findings: Results demonstrate a U-shaped curvilinear relationship between perceived time pressure and creativity. Results further confirm the proposed three-way interaction of perceived time pressure, SWFB, and LMX as joint predictors of creativity.Research limitations/implications: The cross-sectional research design limits the ability to demonstrate causality. Moreover, the data were collected from a single source causing concern for common method bias. Nonetheless, recent research suggests that common method bias cannot create an artificial interaction effect.Originality/value: This study is one of the rare attempts to examine a curvilinear relationship between perceived time pressure and creativity. Moreover, it contributes to the work-family literature by providing the first empirical examination of the linkage between SWFB and creativity. Furthermore, the authors find a three-way interaction between time pressure, SWFB and LMX, and creativity. These findings broaden our understanding of how personal and contextual factors interact to foster creativity.

Drawing from the conservation of resources theory, we explore how two personal resources (satisfaction with work–life balance and experience of flow at work) contribute to two important outcomes in entrepreneurship: entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being and firm growth. Although previous research has emphasized the importance of personal factors for firm growth and explored a variety of factors affecting entrepreneurs’ subjective well-being, little attention has been paid to the role of satisfaction with work–life balance as a critical personal resource for entrepreneurs. With this study, we find that entrepreneurs’ satisfaction with work–life balance is positively associated with subjective well-being, which, in turn, mediates the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and firm growth. Our study also shows that experiencing flow at work accentuates the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and subjective well-being. Based on our findings, we offer implications for practicing entrepreneurs in terms of how to achieve higher levels of well-being and better firm growth. Specifically, we emphasize the benefits of achieving satisfaction with work–life balance, as this is important for an entrepreneur’s subjective well-being and has an indirect impact on firm growth. Stakeholders in entrepreneurial ecosystems should embrace subjective well-being as an important indicator of firm outcomes alongside traditional economic measures.

COVID-19 and digitalization represent important sources of many employees’ frustrations. In this article, we address the question of how employees can achieve meaningful work in such a challenging and frustrating context. Specifically, we investigate whether employees’ negative experiences related to technology use—that is, techno-invasion—leads to frustration and in turn reduces employee perceptions of meaningful work. In addition, we examine corporate social responsibility as a potential remedy that could mitigate these negative effects. The results of our four-wave longitudinal study of 198 working professionals collected during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic did not find support for a proposed negative direct effect of techno-invasion on meaningful work. However, we did find support that perceived corporate social responsibility moderates the indirect relationship between techno-invasion and meaningful work, mediated by frustration: for low levels of corporate social responsibility, techno-invasion results in higher levels of frustration, in turn reducing meaningful work. High levels of corporate social responsibility buffer this negative indirect effect. Implications for research and practice dealing with digitalization, meaningful work, and corporate social responsibility are discussed.

With creativity being recognised as a key driver of organizational success, organizations emphasize the need for their employees to be creative and to work long hours. This article takes a step toward understanding the factors contributing to the creativity of millennials, a generation pursuing meaningful work and cherishing a work–life balance. In Study 1 (n = 238), the relationships between creativity, flow, satisfaction with work–life balance and job crafting were explored; in Study 2 (n = 120) the focus was on examining flow as the mediator in the relationship between satisfaction with work–life balance and creativity. In experimental Study 3 (n = 90), the findings from Study 2 were replicated. Overall, the results of the three studies established flow as the mediating variable and demonstrated the beneficial role of satisfaction with the work–life balance and job crafting in the process leading to creativity.

Emerging trends such as digitalization, globalization, and the COVID-19 pandemic are forcing higher education institutions to undergo constant organizational and technological changes and to introduce innovative pedagogical approaches suitable for teaching a new generation of students—the so-called digital natives. The goal of this paper is to engage in the ongoing debate in higher education about new teaching methods, i.e., game-based learning methods, which meet the needs of digital natives. They have grown up in a fast-paced, technology-driven society, which has affected how they absorb information, their ability to concentrate for extended periods, and their motivation and engagement in the learning process. Existing research suggests that implementing the game-based learning method can be very difficult and costly, as it often requires adapting the freely available game to the requirements of the particular course and additional investment in purchasing appropriate equipment. In this paper, we develop a comprehensive procedure for introducing a cost-effective game-based learning method in higher education, which includes thirteen steps to help lecturers introduce game-based activities straightforwardly into their teaching processes. In addition, we also present security, cultural, and quality assurance issues that need to be considered when implementing game-based learning in higher education.