What motivates knowledge workers to involve themselves in employee innovation behaviour?

There is a lack of research describing the process of employee innovation, as seen from the employee perspective. This extreme case study describes why and how four employees from three organisations chose to involve themselves in a corporate entrepreneurship programme. The motivation for employees to involve themselves in innovation behaviour is operationalised as revealing the reasons that the employees themselves find most important for explaining their innovation behaviour. Key findings indicate that linking intellectual capital and personal intellectual capital to reward increases our understanding of the motivation for employee innovation behaviour. Based on the cues from the literature review and the evidence condensed from the field, a conceptual model of knowledge management and employee innovation behaviour is proposed. The implications of this paper could foster more and better aligned employee innovation behaviour in organisations.