Motivation of employees to innovate and introduce new products in the machinery industry of Poland

The purpose of this article is to report findings from an empirical research study of the Polish machinery industry carried out by a team from Warsaw Technical University. This study aims to show the role and importance of material and non-material motivations in encouraging, developing and directing innovative activity in the machinery industry. The study was carried out among top management and product managers of industrial organizations. Survey results have allowed the authors to establish, first of all, what kinds of motives induce top management and product managers to undertake innovative activity and, secondly, which of these motives are more important and popular among the sample participants. The main conclusion is that non-material motivation plays a greater role than material motivation in stimulating top management and product managers to innovate in Polish industrial organizations. Thus, in order to stimulate industrial innovation, further non-material motivational techniques should be introduced in industrial settings.