[Abstract]
Since thriving at work was presented as a positive emotional, cognitive
psychological state, the positive effects of thriving at work have continued to accumulate.
And it can be confirmed that thriving at work as a psychological experience which
includes emotional vitality and cognitive learning, is an important independence variable
to lead innovation. Up until now, a lot of research has dealt with general study
settings such as large sized firm and so on. Yet, a lack of empirical researches on
this issue coupled with limited study regarding small- and medium-sized enterprises
and their R&D professionals with notable thriving at work act as a stumbling block
to advancing the study. Despite the factor that R&D personnel must be large for
innovative technology, which will be a key factor in small- and medium-sized enterprises
sustainable competitive advantage, previous research examining the intensity of R&D
personnel as a characteristic of small- and medium-sized enterprises can be considered
relatively insufficient. The higher the intensity of R&D personnel, the easier it will
be for R&D personnel to acquire and assimilate new knowledge and information,
as well as transform and utilize knowledge and information among R&D personnel,
and the effect of thriving at work on innovative behavior can be strengthened. To
this end, we conducted a survey of 60 small- and medium-sized enterprises and
213 R&D professionals working in R&D teams. The results illustrated that thriving
at work had no significant effects on innovative behavior. In addition, intensity of
R&D personnel illustrated the positive cross level moderating effect on the relationship
between thriving at work and innovative behavior. Specially, in case of highly intensity
of R&D personnel, thriving at work had positive effects on innovative behavior.
But, in case of lowly intensity of R&D personnel, thriving at work had no significant
effects on innovative behavior. Based on these findings, management implications
for R&D professional of small- and medium-sized enterprises were discussed.