Spurring innovation through intentional organizational crisis: the moderating effects of past performance and resources allocation capability

Purpose How to promote innovation remains a challenge. In practice, some enterprises try to initiate an organizational crisis intentionally to spur innovation. This study approaches this practice and aims to explore the role of intentional organizational crisis in innovation. Design/methodology/approach This study conducted an empirical study. Data was collected from 297 companies in China by a questionnaire survey. Findings Results show the role of intentional organizational crisis in innovation. There is a U-shaped relationship between intentional organizational crisis and product innovation capability. Past performance and resources allocation capability moderate this relationship by weakening the impact of intentional organizational crisis on product innovation capability. Originality/value This study highlights the light and dark sides of intentional organizational crisis and explores its impact on innovation capability, providing some implications for practitioners to use crises as shocks to spur innovation and enriching the research of organizational crisis and innovation capability.