The Influence of Mental Models on Employee-Driven Digital Process Innovation during Times of a Crisis

Digital technologies democratise the development of digital innovation. The resulting employee-driven digital innovation has become a major driver for digital transfor-mations and especially important during crisis times, such as the COVID 19 pandemic. To better understand cognitive factors influencing employee-driven digital process innovation (EDPI), we investigate the role of individual mental models for EDPI during times of a crisis compared to ‘normal’ times. Drawing from longitudinal data before and during the COVID 19 crisis, we find mental models having a significant influence on EDPI behaviour during ‘normal’ times. This relationship, however, loses robustness during the crisis, when employees with more accurate mental models show significant less EDPI behaviour before slowly recovering. We relate these findings to the mental models’ explanatory power and derive recommendations for management. Our study contributes explanatory knowledge on employee-driven digital innovation and related cognitive antecedents