Entrepreneurial leadership and employee innovative behavior in the software development firms: do employees' epistemic curiosity and creative process engagement matter?

PurposeBuilding on self-determination theory, this study empirically examined the influence of entrepreneurial leadership (EL) style on employee innovative behavior (EIB) in the context of software development firms located in the twin cities of Pakistan (Rawalpindi and Islamabad).Design/methodology/approachFor the present study, an employee survey (online questionnaire) was used for data collection. The data were collected through an adopted questionnaire by using emails and messaging applications. Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze data collected from 245 respondents.FindingsThe findings of this study delineate that entrepreneurial leadership positively and significantly influences employee innovative behavior. Moreover, the relationship between entrepreneurial leadership and employee innovative behavior was partially mediated by employee epistemic curiosity (EC) and creative process engagement (CPE). The sequential mediation by the employee epistemic curiosity and creative process engagement between the link of entrepreneurial leadership and employee innovative behavior was also confirmed.Practical implicationsIn innovation-intensive organizations like software development firms, entrepreneurial leadership style can foster employee innovative behavior that is critical for organizational innovation success. This study provides information to the strategic leaders on how leadership behaviors can drive employee innovative behavior, particularly in the context of software development companies.Originality/valueThis study is an attempt to extend the scarce literature on the mechanisms through which leadership styles impact employee innovative behavior. Specifically, the mediating roles of employee epistemic curiosity and creative process engagement have been explored through a self-determination perspective.

Contribution of Epistemic Curiosity and its Relevance to Science Process Skills on Biology Prospective Teacher

The purpose of this study was to determine the contribution of epistemic curiosity (EC) to the science process skills (SPS) of prospective biology teachers. Ex post facto research design with research subjects 32 students of the third-semester biology education study program at the Mandalika University of Education. Samples were taken using the purposive sampling method. The instruments used were the State Curiosity Scale (SCS) to collect epistemic curiosity data, Student Worksheets, and the Science Process Skills rubric to collect SPS. The results showed that the magnitude of the correlation value or R relationship was 0.600. From the output, the coefficient of determination (R Square) was 0.359, this shows that EC is correlated with SPS. Meanwhile, in terms of the results of simple regression analysis, it was found that the variable X (EC) obtained the value of t-count = 4.103 > 1.697 t-table and sig. = 0.000 < 5%. This means that the EC variable contributes significantly to the SPS variable. The results obtained have not been able to describe the contribution of EC to each SPS indicator, so further research needs to analyze the contribution of EC to each SPS indicator

STUDI CURIOSITY, EPISTEMIC CURIOSITY, DAN KEBERHASILAN BELAJAR DALAM KONTEKS AKADEMIK

Abstrak: Peran belajar yang sangat beragam telah memberikan kemudahan dalam mengarungi kehidupan manusia. Tentu saja, belajar tidak dapat diperoleh dengan mudah, karena dibutuhkan berbagai unsur yang dapat mengakselerasi kesuksesan selama prosesnya. Hal ini yang setidaknya dapat terwujud dengan keberadaan curiosity. Para ilmuwan percaya bahwa curiosity dapat menciptakan suasana belajar yang lebih dinamis, seperti untuk melakukan eksplorasi mendalam dan menghindari kecukupan perolehan pengetahuan dasar saja. Oleh karena itu, diperlukan pemahaman dari seluruh subjek yang terlibat dalam proses mengembangkan curiosity saat belajar. Dalam studi literatur akan banyak disajikan informasi mengenai empat dimensi dalam curiosity, diantaranya diversive curiosity, specific curiosity, perceptual curiosity, dan epistemic curiosity. Dari keempat dimensi ini, kajian terhadap epistemic curiosity menjadi titik kunci kesuksesan belajar dalam konteks akademik. Epistemic curiosity merupakan jenis curiosity berupa keinginan untuk memperoleh pengetahuan yang memotivasi peserta didik untuk mempelajari ide-ide baru, meminimalkan kesenjangan informasi, dan memecahkan masalah kompleks yang memerlukan pemikiran kritis. Walaupun belajar nyatanya tidak selalu melekat dengan sekolah dan akademik, tetapi dunia akademik yang menjadi fokus utama dalam hal ini menjadi sudut pandang yang melengkapi kajian epistemic curiosity. Bahkan berdasarkan penelusuran, epistemic curiosity adalah dimensi yang paling berperan dalam peningkatan prestasi peserta didik.

Fostering Epistemic Curiosity in School Children by Instructional Teaching Design: Classroom Realities of Indian Schools

The study attempted to answer two basic questions of classroom teaching: a. what were the most common teaching practices at the elementary school level? And b. did teachers foster curiosity in children during teaching? Classroom proceedings enfolded various teaching activities that might lead to a knowledge gap in students. 137 primary and middle schools (altogether 411 classes) were randomly selected to measure a pattern of questioning and answering during classroom teaching. Findings revealed that a large number of teachers adopted lecturing followed by writing on the board, dictating, and ignored some important teaching techniques such as explaining, demonstrating, and experimentation; though they were familiar with all these. Hardly any student asked questions to the teachers. Teachers missed to generate a gap of knowledge in them, showing hardly any use of curiosity-led instructional teaching design. Throwing any question to class or a group of students was an unplanned teaching behaviour. It was a limitation of an in-built education system that prioritised rote learning, exam scores, and grades that measured more static knowledge rather than understanding knowledge. The findings discussed limitations of the in-built education system and mindset of teachers that discouraged epistemic curiosity in children.

A novel approach to the assessment of curiosity

The general consensus is that a curious mind is essential for learning, or at the very least facilitates learning. Assessment of curiosity, however, is challenging. We developed a practical, objective, behavioural measure for the assessment of epistemic curiosity for middle childhood, the Connect-the-Dots (CTD) task. The operationalization centres around the concept of an information gap: The experience of missing information may urge to search for information to close this gap and it is assumed that children differ in the strength of the urge to do so. The CTD task was administered to children (6-12 years; N = 328), and was administered again after about 11 weeks (N = 220). Internal consistency was good to excellent, test-retest reliability ranged from poor to sufficient. Correlations with teacher ratings of curiosity, and indicators of knowledge acquisition were positive and significant, indicating convergent validity. Directions for future studies with the CTD task are proposed.

Inquisitive but Not Discerning: Deprivation Curiosity is Associated with Excessive Openness to Inaccurate Information

Epistemic curiosity (the desire for knowledge) is considered a catalyst for learning and innovation. The current research reveals another, darker side of curiosity, which emerges when we examine the independent contributions of the two facets that make up epistemic curiosity—interest and deprivation curiosity. In four preregistered studies (collective N = 2020), we show that interest curiosity, a facet of curiosity motivated by the joy of exploration, is associated with traits and abilities that benefit learning. These include general knowledge (Studies 1-4), intellectual humility (Studies 1-4), responsiveness to new information (Studies 1, 3 &amp; 4), and accuracy in distinguishing real and made-up concepts (Studies 1-4). In contrast, deprivation curiosity, which is motivated by the desire to reduce uncertainty, is associated with mistakes and confusion. Individuals high in deprivation curiosity claim familiarity with novel information (Studies 1 &amp; 3) and made-up concepts (Studies 1-4). They find meaning in pseudo-profound and pseudo-scientific “bullshit” (Studies 3 &amp; 4) and are prone to believing and sharing disinformation or “fake news” (Study 4). To make matters worse, they lack intellectually humility (Studies 1-4), and are thus unlikely to recognize their mistakes. We find that these difficulties are not explained by narcissistic self-enhancement (Study 2) or lack of analytic thinking (Study 4), and only partially accounted for by need for closure (Study 3). We theorize that deprivation curiosity is characterized by an indiscriminate openness to information.

"LOCALIZED REVISION OF THE EPISTEMIC CURIOSITY SCALE FOR CHINESE SENIOR HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS "

"Objective: The goal of this research was to revise Litman’s Epistemic Curiosity Scale (ECS), so that it can be applied to the evaluation of the developmental characteristics among Chinese senior high school students. Methods: 25 senior high school students were first invited to a trial test for confirming the item comprehensibility, after then 602 senior high students were enrolled to the formal testing for the item analysis and exploratory factor analysis. And 533 Chinese high school students responding ECS were submitted to test the construct validity of the localized Chinese-version ECS. Then the scale was applied to 366 subjects to test the internal consistency indices and criteria correlation validity. Finally, 153 senior high school students were used to test test-retest reliability of the ECS. Results: All of the 10 items were retained, through exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis, the two-factor model which was consistent with the original scale proved to be the most appropriate, its main goodness of fit indices were: x2/df=2.68, CFI=0.93, NFI=0.93, TLI=0.90, GFI=0.97, AGFI=0.95, and RMSEA=0.06. The study found internal consistency indices (Cronbach’s alpha) from 0.73 to 0.78 in the first three samples. In addition, the ECS had a high correlation with Chinese version of Trait Curiosity Scale (r=0.53, p<0.001), test-retest reliability over 2-month interval was 0.54 to 0.56 for each of the 2 sub-scale and 0.64 for the total ECS. Conclusion: Findings in these studies support the cross-cultural validity of the ECS in Chinese senior high school students."

Mathematics Creative Thinking Skills in Problem-Based Learning Model Reviewed from Learners’ Curiosity and Gender

Creative thinking skills are important to be trained in mathematics learning because solving math problems cannot be separated from these skills. This research described learners’ mathematics creative thinking skills reviewed by curiosity and gender. This research is sequential explanatory research with a mixed methods with quantitative and qualitative approaches. Thirty-five learners of the 10th graders learning group were given a curiosity test to discover their curiosity types. They were stimulated by problem-based learning to develop their mathematics creative thinking skills. The findings showed that learners had various mathematics, creative thinking skills. They were proven by epistemic, perceptual curiosity, and perceptual curiosity diverse learners for both males and females. They were creative. The male learners with epistemic curiosity diverse categories were also creative while the female was very creative. Based on this research, the mathematical creative thinking ability of female gender students with the epistemic curiosity type is more dominant than perceptual curiosity.

To Mod or Not to Mod—An Empirical Study on Game Modding as Customer Value Co-Creation

A spiking interest in customer’s value co-creation may be observed lately, especially in the gaming industry. The general purpose of this study is to identify the customers’ inclination to perform game modding as a manner of value co-creation which benefits both companies and other game users. The current knowledge regarding the factors determining this behaviour is, relatively speaking, weak. The authors conducted qualitative research in the forms of in-depth interviews and focus groups with Polish game players (including mod users and mod creators). This study provides evidence for the peculiar motives of the customers performing different levels of engagement: mod users are driven by game enjoyment, focusing on the motives and social affiliation of multiplayer groups, while mod creators are mainly motivated by the enjoyment of creation, pride, creativity, and epistemic curiosity; engagement and social affiliation are received by mod creators with unique talents. The paper provides tentative evidence for specific customers’ motivations to co-create, which benefits both companies (game developers) and other game users. The players are perceived as an inseparable part of the gaming industry, who deliver extra value to the market through game modding activities. The paper provides useful, executable guidance on how to encourage and support players to engage in value co-creation in virtual words. The study may enrich our understanding of customers’ inclinations on both theoretical and empirical levels, showing some of the motivations both to use and create mods. In comparison to previous research, mod creators and mod users were researched separately in this study, and thus a distinction of their different sets of motives was enabled. Both practitioners and researchers may find what is uncovered in the paper engrossing.