The extent to which firms innovate will largely contribute to their survival and
success (Hult et al., 2004). A substantial number of researcher and managerial
practitioners acknowledge the importance of firm innovativeness and the role it plays in
enabling firm to survive the turbulent market environment, improve performance,
satisfy and meet the needs of customers (Calantone et al., 2002; Wang and Ahmed, 2004; Basadur and Gelade, 2006; and Hamel, 2006). Innovativeness therefore becomes
an important determinant of firm competitiveness (Wang and Ahmed,
2004). Nevertheless, empirical studies suggest that firm's innovativeness is influenced
by certain internal and external organizational factors such as organizational
structure (Subramanian and Nilakanta, 1996; Gann et al., 1998; and Hult et al., 2004).
This fact has attracted the attention of scholars to investigate the type
of organizational structure that influences or inhibits innovation adoption by
firms. Some scholars argue that innovation and innovativeness differ and the former is
an antecedent of the later (Kamaruddeen et
al., 2010). We therefore argue that the organizational factors that influence innovation adoption also
influence organizational innovativeness.
Construction of housing units in Malaysia provides job opportunities to many of
the industry players including bankers and building material manufacturers. The
industry also supports other 142 related industries (Usilappan, 2005).
Additionally, employment opportunities are provided to all categories of labor (Seiders,
2004). Housing developers are therefore regarded as contributors to the economy and
social development of Malaysia (Sufian and Rozanah, 2008). To stabilize the
economy, housing was used as a tool to `pump prime' the economy after the Asian
financial crisis in 1997-98. Such measure included waiver on stamp duty, end financing
and bridging loans for developers and property fair. |
