Determinants of students’ innovation in Higher Education

Innovation in the workplace has been claimed to be a key factor in organizational survival and success. As future workers, university students are a major source of future innovations in organizational settings. Before they enter the labour market, it is in the context of Higher Education that they start developing some of their long-term behaviours, such as innovation behaviours. This study aims to explore the main determinants of university students’ innovation behaviours from a longitudinal perspective. The sample comprised 78 students of Psychology, Management, Fine Arts and Education. The results of this study show that previous innovation behaviours as freshmen, current levels of autonomy and cognitive demands are positively related to individual innovation among university students. Practical implications regarding how to foster innovation efforts in the context of Higher Education are discussed.