Innovation has become a critical requirement for organisational survival and competitiveness in the global financial sector (Strobl et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2018). In emerging economies such as Nigeria, the financial sector is a vital engine room in the nation’s economy, providing direct and indirect jobs, as well as financing investments that help in the overall economic growth (Olachi et al., 2020). Innovative work behaviour (IWB) equips individuals with the necessary skills to maintain a competitive advantage and safeguard the organisation’s stability (AlEssa & Durugbo, 2021). Because of the fierce competition in the global market, organisations, particularly financial institutions, must constantly reinvent themselves in order to stay competitive (Strobl et al., 2020; Wang et al., 2018). It is through innovation that companies are able to acquire and maintain a competitive lead (Lin et al., 2018). This is particularly true for the financial sector in Nigeria, where the level of innovation is low because of the number of Nigerians who do not have their own bank accounts (Akinwunmi et al., 2016). Data from Nigeria 2021 indices show that 36% of Nigeria’s 106 million adults (citizens 18 years of age and over) were still completely financially excluded, a figure that captures some 38.1 million people. This implies that the Nigerian Financial Inclusion Strategy’s (NFIS) target of 80% for the year 2020 has not been met to date. These low levels of financial inclusion have highlighted the importance of innovation in nourishing a thriving banking sector. This implies that Nigeria has not met the target of the NFIS. The financial service industry, therefore, faces substantial structural, regulatory and market pressures that demand continuous adaptation and novel approaches to service delivery. While innovation research in Nigeria has grown, it has focused mainly on organisational-level factors, technology adoption or broad conceptualisations of IWB (Jejeniwa et al., 2024). Little attention has been paid to employees working as marketers of financial services and their leaders who play a critical role in customer engagement, brand positioning and service innovation. Insight into how marketers and their leaders understand, interpret and enable IWB in practice within Nigerian financial institutions is, therefore, limited. This study, therefore, addresses this gap by exploring the lived experiences and perceptions of marketers and leaders in Ibadan, Nigeria, with the aim of generating deeper insights into both the individual and organisational factors that shape IWB in this sector.

The purpose of this study is to explore marketers and their leaders’ understanding of IWB in financial institutions in Ibadan, Nigeria. Given the limited empirical attention on IWB within Nigeria’s financial sectors, most especially among the marketing employees (Akinpelu & Meyer-Weitz, 2023), the purpose of this study is to provide in-depth insights into how employees conceptualise innovation, the organisational and personal factors that influence their innovative behaviour, and the mechanisms by which innovative ideas are managed within financial institutions. Through a qualitative inquiry, the study aims to develop context-specific knowledge that might help financial institutions strengthen their inventive potential, improve their work environments and improve service delivery in an increasingly competitive and technologically driven world.

The key themes from the interviews aligned with some of the key questions asked during the interviews. Sub-themes were identified within these key themes for the marketers and leaders as depicted in Table 2.

The findings from this study revealed that participants (i.e. marketers and leaders) perceived IWB as the development of new ideas for the overall growth and benefit of the organisation. This finding supports and extends existing theoretical explanations of IWB and aligns with Janssen’s (2008) and Escriba-Carda et al.’s (2017) multidimensional views of IWB as employees’ ability to generate novel concepts and viewpoints, which are then transformed into innovations. Participants conceptualised innovation as both generating and improving ideas to enhance organisational performance. The findings further affirm the Componential Theory of Creativity (Amabile, 2012) and also Al-Omari et al.’s (2019) view of innovation as activities focused on creating new products, processes or services that will benefit people, organisations and society at large. Leaders in this study were also of the opinion that IWB not only is about the development of new ideas and improvement to the business but also helps to achieve greater customer satisfaction. Apart from the development of new ideas, participants perceived IWB as improving existing ideas, being creative, proffering solutions to problems and promoting new brands. This finding is consistent with Xerri (2018), who states that IWB in the workplace begins with an employee identifying a work-related problem; this is followed by the development of new ideas, which leads to solutions. The final step in the innovative process is to build support for the new ideas generated and begin to develop solutions (Xerri, 2018). It is important to know that some of the marketers referred to IWB as a personal attitude or orientation to an internalised way of work. Based on the findings of this study, it can therefore be concluded that innovation or IWB is perceived as developing ideas and improving existing methods and concepts to achieve greater customer satisfaction, as achieved through creative problem-solving and new ways of thinking.

Participants also indicated that the main factors that influence IWB were an enabling environment, organisational structure, personal attributes and leadership. This study found that having an enabling environment is an important factor in achieving IWB. Embedded in an enabling environment is good human relationships, supportive leadership, providing basic resources and facilities, employee training, a legal regulatory framework and a focus on the external environment (Akinpelu & Meyer-Weitz, 2023). In the study of Al-Omari et al. (2019), the organisational environment was found to play a significant role in encouraging IWB.

Supportive leadership as part of an enabling environment was raised by both leaders and marketers in influencing IWB. Most participants acknowledged the importance of a supportive leader and how this kind of leadership impacts their ability to be more innovative. This finding affirms the role of transformational leadership (Bass, 1995), particularly as supportive and motivational leadership as central to employees’ willingness to propose and implement innovative ideas. Based on previous research findings, a supportive leader can be likened to a transformational leader. Transformational leaders are leaders able to build confidence and trust in employees. They can bring about changes in the organisation, helping it to perform more effectively and at greater capacities for the benefit of the organisation. A transformational leader is said to have the following features: individualised consideration, idealised influence, inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation (Bass et al., 1996; Boyett, 2006; Williams, 2014). Individualised consideration refers to the ability to pay close attention to and care about an employee’s desires and requirements, as well as to make the employee feel appreciated by their organisation. Idealised influence requires that transformational leaders serve as role models, making employees proud to work for them. Inspirational motivation is the leader’s capability to inspire employees to work with passion, confidence and a positive attitude. Intellectual stimulation refers to the leader’s ability to motivate the team to think about problems and bring in distinct viewpoints to seek solutions through innovation and implementation (Bass et al., 1996; Boyett, 2006; Williams, 2014). Transformational leadership requires inspiring leadership to foster followers’ capabilities for creativity. The shared motivation in reaching a common goal lends a sense of purpose and meaning, and transformational leadership models this through practical examples and relevant behaviour (Colquitt et al., 2019). To experience any positive change in an organisation or situation, the best way to bring about is through a transformational leadership style (Kazmi & Naaranoja, 2015). Transformational leadership fosters an appropriate environment for employees who want to get involved in IWB, particularly when such behaviours are challenging and uncertain, and when the likelihood of the idea’s success is undetermined (Masood & Afsar, 2017). The positive relationship between transformational leadership and innovation can be attributed to a leader’s ability to enhance their followers’ intrinsic drives to promote innovative and novel results (Al-Omari et al., 2019; Ghulam, 2014; Khan et al., 2009; Wang & Hong, 2010; Zhang et al., 2018). According to Ghulam (2014), transformational leadership has significance associated with innovation, including knowledge management. Widiartanto and Suhadak (2013) stated that transformational leadership positively influences learning orientation and thus organisational innovation.

Providing an innovation-enabling environment for employees could also be achieved through employee training, as found in this study. Participants felt that the organisation’s operating structures impact employees’ IWB. Most of the marketers in the study contended that a rigid organisation structure impedes both the implementation and realisation of new ideas and innovation. This evidence also aligned with organisational climate and culture theories (Scott & Bruce, 1994; Shanker et al., 2017), where availability of resources, positive human relations and knowledge sharing enabled IWB in an organisation. Gaspary et al. (2020) emphasise the importance of a favourable organisational structure, finding that structural characteristics could influence a work environment in ways that influence innovation. Their research findings highlight that leaders must consider the ways in which an organisation’s structure might influence its staff’s ability to innovate and should seek to create an environment in which employees can generate ideas and explore novel opportunities. According to Berberoglu (2018), the organisational environment and employees’ attitudes towards their jobs and their organisational climate are important factors. Organisational climate is described as a long-lasting working environment that enables the mechanisms for the advancement of knowledge (Di Stefano & Micheli, 2022). Consequently, a supportive organisational climate fosters a constructive belief system among employees (Brimhall, 2019). In order to promote IWB, an organisational climate that recognises and encourages innovation or IWB is important (Cherly et al., 2022). As a result, efforts to improve the organisational climate can be a valuable strategy for improving IWB. This study found that the financial system presents a complex social structure, as leaders are required to adopt a strategic orientation in response to the continuous and unpredictable changes within the business environment. Consequently, organisations should proactively shape the appropriate strategies and processes to foster a positive work climate conducive to creative and innovative idea generation among employees (Akinpelu & Meyer-Weitz, 2023).

This continuously changing and unpredictable external environment directly influences IWB. The participants specified that the activities of customers, competitors and suppliers, the legal regulatory framework and the labour market are all cogent factors that impact innovation. OECD/Eurostat (2019) stated that the external environment of a firm consists of aspects that are not directly controlled by the management. While these aspects are challenging, they also bring opportunities to management to make meaningful business decisions. Financial institutions were described by the participants to be influenced by customer behaviour, actions of their competitors, their supply chain, as well as more macro-economic factors such as unemployment and broader economic conditions locally and globally. These views were supported by OECD/Eurostat (2019), highlighting the role of product and service users and customers who purchase goods or services from an organisation as a driver of innovative behaviour and innovation. In addition, competition was another market feature argued to impact innovation or IWB. The number of competitors, the comparative size of the competitors, whether an organisation is much bigger or smaller than its counterparts, or the strength of the competition in the organisation’s market are all important gauges to measure the strength of an organisation’s competition. In addition to this, Blind (2013) points out that an extensive number of regulations can influence the innovation activities of an organisation.

The personal attributes of employees were the final factor by the marketers in this study to influence IWB. They emphasised creativity, working with passion or motivation and open-mindedness to learning, as vital personal qualities that influence IWB. According to the study by Wang et al. (2019), employees’ attributes are important influencing factors in IWB. Zheng et al. (2018) found that employees’ learning behaviour will positively influence company efficiency. Chen et al. (2019) believes that proactive personality types influence IWB. Based on the findings of this study, the personal attributes of IWB can be compared to an intrinsic form of motivation. An individual who is intrinsically motivated is driven by opportunity or passion rather than by need, necessity or external rewards (Ersarı & Naktiyok, 2012). Various personal attributes can be considered important in innovative behaviour (Madrid et al., 2014; Montani et al., 2014; Newman et al., 2020).

The study found that innovative ideas are managed in the financial sector through idea ranking, discussions, and other team management processes. According to the participants’ narratives, idea ranking is a way of selecting promising ideas and concepts brought forward by employees. This is believed to help management and teams as a whole to sift through the ideas that are not feasible while retaining the realistic ideas that have the potential for positive impact and are feasible to implement. This process seems to be aligned with the diffusion of innovation theory of Rogers (2003) in which he identified stages of the innovation adoption process, such as gaining the relevant knowledge, followed by persuasion, decision, the implementation stage and, lastly, the confirmation stage.

Additionally, in the findings of this study, teams can be used to develop and manage innovative ideas generated by the organisation. This results in knowledge sharing as team members and management deliberate on cogent matters. Knowledge sharing in teams and organisations is associated with IWB (Radaelli et al., 2014; Xu & Suntrayuth, 2022). In addition, collaborative work teams and policies that encourage the active sharing of ideas within the organisation have been found to promote innovation in organisations (Amabile, 2012). Psychological safety and knowledge sharing are reported to play a significant mediation role in innovation and IWB, and importantly, psychological safety seems to enhance individual IWB by knowledge sharing among team members (Xu & Suntrayuth, 2022). These results confirm the importance of supportive teamwork and psychologically safe spaces in encouraging employee IWB.

The study found that employees who bring innovative ideas may be given bonuses and other incentives such as positive recommendations, and in some cases may even be publicly congratulated and receive awards. Rewards and recognition increase employee commitment, zeal and engagement in their work, which leads to numerous benefits for the organisation, such as increased productivity and higher retention rates. Recognition programmes have proven effective because they send a clear message to employees that what they do matters. However, the study challenges assumptions within motivation and reward literature that recognition reliably fosters innovation (Çetin et al., 2016), with several participants reporting inconsistent or absent rewards. Rewarding excellent performance and success with awards or bonuses will help keep employees focused and motivate them to do better, encouraging them to accomplish the goals they set out to achieve. Additionally, Çetin et al. (2016) state that encouraging employees requires extrinsic motivation to necessitate a rewarding output at the end of a completed task or accomplishment. Mankin et al. (2019) add that external motivating tools are regarded as an important element to be used to ensure task completion and to provide employees with a sense of independence in their work. External motivating tools include providing good work conditions, a salary system, job security, advancement conditions and promotion, a healthy social environment, status, a pleasant work environment and a strong organisation image. However, some participants said that there was no reward for bringing innovative ideas and suggested that this might explain why employees are not forthcoming with the development of innovative ideas. In this way, innovation is stifled in an organisation.

In conclusion, a supportive organisational culture, an enabling climate as depicted in Figure 1, inspiring leadership and appropriate work structures are essential for fostering IWB. Financial institutions should cultivate a positive and psychologically safe environment that encourages knowledge sharing to support creativity and innovation. Training programmes may enhance engagement and motivation that may improve innovation in the workplace, while targeted training programmes on specific transferable skills like problem-solving and emotional intelligence, in particular, could enhance relationships and thus positively influence IWB. This study further suggests that well-designed reward and recognition systems are likely to improve employee engagement, motivation and retention. In addition, when selecting marketers, human resources should consider personal attributes such as creativity, resilience and goal-directedness, as these traits may enhance job fit and overall performance. By acknowledging employee contributions, organisations reinforce commitment and foster a culture of continuous innovation, ultimately contributing to sustained organisational performance.