Abstract:
Along with the advancement of the technology, software companies have to face a huge competition in
the global and the local market. To face this competition innovations can be used as a strategic weapon.
As employees are the main driving forces of innovation, their behavior can be a crucial factor in
boosting innovation. Innovative behavior is referred as the introduction and application of new ideas,
products, processes, and procedures to a person's work role or an organization. This behavior directly
affects innovation performance of an organization. The main aim of this study is to identify the factors
that affect employee innovative behavior and their effect in Sri Lankan software companies using a
quantitative methodology. Apart from that this study provides a conclusive summary of the current
status of innovative behavior of employees. As the initial step mapping study was done to find the past
literature related to the research topic. From that study, seventeen papers were identified as primary
studies. Factors that have been proved by previously done research were used in this study. So nine
factors were considered to cover a broad area of innovative behavior. A model was constructed by
considering the above factors to get a clear idea about the study. Findings of the study emphasizes that
both individual and organizational factors affect innovative behavior. Results have proven that
psychological capital, organizational support, rewards, resource availability, leadership and social
capital have a significant impact on employee innovative behavior while organizational structure,
organizational commitment and work characteristics haven’t any impact. Proposed model was
reconstructed according to the results and areas that should be improved were identified.
