Students’ innovation competence: The relationship with academic performance and self-monitoring

The purpose of this paper is to identify differences in the measurement of innovation competence among business school students as well as the relationship between their innovation competence and academic performance along with self-monitoring. 247 undergraduate students (18–21 years old) studying in the leading universities in Saint Petersburg, Russia participated in the study. Data were collected using the Snyder’s self-monitoring scale and a new “Innovative competence” scale. The latter was adapted for the Russian audience from the “Framework for Innovation Competencies Development and Assessment” scale by reducing the number of statements by means of a confirmatory factor analysis. The study showed that none of the five components of innovation competence (creativity, critical thinking, teamwork, initiative, and networking) is related to student academic performance. Overall, male participants showed higher levels of self-monitoring than female participants. Also, our regression analysis indicated a positive and statistically significant relationship between student levels of self-monitoring and all five dimensions of their innovation competence. The new “Innovative competence” scale can be used by institutions of higher educations as well as for-profit and non-for-profit organizations. When levels of participants’ innovation competence and self-monitoring are assessed together, approaches to developing innovation potential among employees or students could be identified. The scale should be further tested among participants of other age groups and involved in different levels of education (e.g., graduate students) or types of educational institutions (e.g., professional and career colleges). The new “Innovative competence” scale can be used to measure levels of innovation competence among individuals with or without work experience or employment status.