Microfoundations of open innovation in schools: overcoming teachers’ not-invented-here syndrome with transformational leadership and leader-member-exchange
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In: School Leadership and Management, 05.11.2025.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Microfoundations of open innovation in schools
T2 - overcoming teachers’ not-invented-here syndrome with transformational leadership and leader-member-exchange
AU - Witthöft, Jasmin
AU - Adams, Donnie
AU - Aydin, Burak
AU - Muniandy, Vasu
AU - Pietsch, Marcus
N1 - Publisher Copyright: © 2025 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
PY - 2025/11/5
Y1 - 2025/11/5
N2 - Open innovation (OI) offers new strategies for educational innovation and change. Whereas collective knowledge creation and external knowledge inputs are essential to OI, schools must embrace knowledge sourcing and exchange. Especially leadership and social interactions are key to OI. A microfoundational perspective on OI posits that micro-level organisational actions and interactions mediate macro-level associations. On this behalf, individuals’ negative attitudes toward external knowledge, such as the Not Invented Here Syndrome (NIH), can hinder knowledge exchange and disrupt OI. This study uses multilevel structural equation modelling to investigate the microfoundations of OI in schools. Following microfoundational research principles, Coleman’s bathtub model is employed to analyse the relationship between transformational leadership (TL), leader-member-exchange (LMX), teachers not invented here syndrome (NIH), and OI. Data from 1,178 Malaysian teachers and 54 school leaders is analysed. The results offer new insights into the underlying social mechanism influencing OI in schools and demonstrate the impact of micro-level interactions. Teachers’ NIH and positive teacher-principal relationships (LMX) are pivotal to fostering OI and mitigating NIH.
AB - Open innovation (OI) offers new strategies for educational innovation and change. Whereas collective knowledge creation and external knowledge inputs are essential to OI, schools must embrace knowledge sourcing and exchange. Especially leadership and social interactions are key to OI. A microfoundational perspective on OI posits that micro-level organisational actions and interactions mediate macro-level associations. On this behalf, individuals’ negative attitudes toward external knowledge, such as the Not Invented Here Syndrome (NIH), can hinder knowledge exchange and disrupt OI. This study uses multilevel structural equation modelling to investigate the microfoundations of OI in schools. Following microfoundational research principles, Coleman’s bathtub model is employed to analyse the relationship between transformational leadership (TL), leader-member-exchange (LMX), teachers not invented here syndrome (NIH), and OI. Data from 1,178 Malaysian teachers and 54 school leaders is analysed. The results offer new insights into the underlying social mechanism influencing OI in schools and demonstrate the impact of micro-level interactions. Teachers’ NIH and positive teacher-principal relationships (LMX) are pivotal to fostering OI and mitigating NIH.
KW - Leader-member-exchange
KW - microfoundations
KW - not invented here syndrome
KW - open innovation
KW - transformational leadership
KW - Educational science
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105021045027&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/13632434.2025.2580641
DO - 10.1080/13632434.2025.2580641
M3 - Journal articles
JO - School Leadership and Management
JF - School Leadership and Management
SN - 1363-2434
ER -