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Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea
Abstract
In a wide variety of organizational settings, teams generate a number of possible solutions to a problem, and then select a few for further investigation. We examine the effectiveness of two creative problem solving processes for such tasks - one, where the group works together as a team (the team process), and the other where individuals first work alone and then work together (the hybrid process). We define effectiveness as the quality of the best ideas identified by the group. We build theory that relates previously observed group behaviour to four different variables that characterize the creative problem solving process: (1) the average quality of ideas generated, (2) the number of ideas generated, (3) the variance in the quality of ideas generated, and (4) the ability of the group to discern the quality of the ideas. Prior research defines effectiveness as the quality of the average idea, ignoring any differences in variance and in the ability to discern the best ideas. In our experimental set-up, we find that groups employing the hybrid process are able to generate more ideas, to generate better ideas, and to better discern their best ideas compared to teams that rely purely on group work. Moreover, we find that the frequently recommended brainstorming technique of building on each other’s ideas is counter-productive: teams exhibiting such build-up neither create more ideas nor are the ideas that build on previous ideas better.
... Responses to Survey Interview II (Appendix B) revealed the average number of ideas generated by nurses over the preceding 12 months (cf. Girotra et al., 2010) and what proportion of those ideas was communicated (Hofstetter et al., 2021) -that is, since ideas must be expressed in some way before their existence can be documented. Moreover, Survey Interview III yielded information about average idea quality (Girotra et al., 2010). ...
... Girotra et al., 2010) and what proportion of those ideas was communicated (Hofstetter et al., 2021) -that is, since ideas must be expressed in some way before their existence can be documented. Moreover, Survey Interview III yielded information about average idea quality (Girotra et al., 2010). Those three measures were multiplied to form a frontline idea generation performance metric that reflects both productivity and merit. ...
... The third survey interview measured idea quality, as it is a natural and frequently used measure in the innovation literature (Girotra et al., 2010). We asked middle managers to evaluate the frontline ideas generated in their hospitals. ...
We Study idea generation by healtcare frontline personnel, that is, innovation by employees whose main job is operational rather than innovatve.
... Indeed, although the development of a new product vision is a creative process (Perry-Smith & Mannucci, 2017) requiring the ability to produce novel and useful ideas (Amabile et al., 1996), creativity at the Front End of innovation is distinctive in nature. Differently than in the development phase where the problems have been defined and creativity is aimed at problem solving (Girotra, et al., 2010), the creativity enacted early on is aimed at problem framing (Dell'Era et al., 2020;Röth & Spieth, 2019). In a heated scientific debate with Herbert Simon, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi (1988, p. 184) argued that problem solving and framing require orthogonal cognitive strategies, meaning "not just rational, but emotional and motivational as well". ...
... From an emotional and psychological standpoint, both the sense-giver and the receiver might experience enhanced engagement and motivation toward the creative task (George & Zhou, 2001). According to the literature on creativity (Li et al., 2020;Girotra et al., 2010), brainstorming (e.g., Diehl & Stroebe, 1987), and design thinking (e.g., Johansson-Sköldberg et al., 2013), dynamics such as "build on top" (Rouse, 2020;Dirks et al., 1996) and "yes, and" (Vera & Crossan, 2005), might be manifested among the sense-giver and the receiver whereby the content is accepted and added to. ...
... Third, the upper-left quadrant (low letting go, high novelty) shows a situation where members do not let go of their previous content but succeed in developing a new vision. In this situation, members build on each other's vision by introducing a novel concept that determines an increase in novelty (Sutton & Hargadon, 1996;Girotra et al., 2010). Starting from the vision in the previous phases, new elements are added to form a new vision. ...
This study investigates how novel product visions emerge as team members share and fuse their insights. Existing studies contrast the merits of two possible paths. On the one hand, a vision is mainly conceived by the creative lead, putting forward a direction and then buying-in ownership of the other team members. On the other hand, a vision emerges as a balanced collaborative effort where all team members contribute. Through the sensemaking theoretical lens, we expand this discussion by proposing that regardless of who the main driver of innovation is, what is important in vision creation is the individual's ability of "letting go" of early insights, namely sense-breaking. We analyze the vision creation dynamics of 26 top management teams. We capture how the verbal descriptions of a vision change from individual insights to a shared concept. We show how "letting go" of earlier creations is as important as adding new ones.
... First, teams may need to use practices that are less convergent than those that are used in more pragmatic innovations (Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich, 2010), yet the concepts still need to chart a coherent and compelling vision for that future. Less convergent concepts can be said to be purposely "incomplete" (Garud et al., 2008) and open to reinterpretation (Rahman & Barley, 2017), allowing for multiple paths of generativity while still providing a coherent set of ideas that enable further development. ...
... There are general principles with regard to successful practices in the front-end of innovation, often focused on obtaining a wide-range of ideas, sometimes referred to as "idea fluency." This process draws on an evolutionary perspective that posits that the wider the range of ideas the better chance one will be successful (Girotra et al., 2010;Paulus & Nijstad, 2003;Simonton, 2011) and then building on those ideas to have a stock of even more novel ideas (Gillier & Bayus, 2022;Kohn, Paulus, & Choi, 2011). These evolutionary models focus on divergent practices that expand options, followed by later convergent processes that select among alternatives (Kornish & Hutchison-Krupat, 2017). ...
... In their review, Hua and colleagues (2022) summarize that many studies of ideas, often grounded in the literature represented by the evolutionary view, portray ideas as distinct particles (e.g. Berg, 2014;Girotra et al., 2010). In contrast, they note that traditions in the integrative view portray ideas as malleable and changing, likening them to continuous waves that fluctuate over time (e.g. ...
... Subjects work independently for some parts of the allocated time in the first phase and then work together in the second phase. (Robbins and Judges, 2006;Paulus et al. 1996;Stroebe and Diehl, 1994 Girotra et al. 2010 Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea. Experiment ...
... Approximately, it was found that the hybrid structure produces three times as many ideas as the group does in each unit of time. Similarity, the quality of idea generated in the hybrid structure is better than the one done in the group (Girotra & Ulrich, 2010). Therefore, we expect the hybrid structure performs better than group structure in term of analogical reasoning method. ...
... The results showed a positive relationship between the utilization of the hybrid structure and number of generated ideas and the creativeness of resulting ideas. These findings were consistent with previous findings on the utilization of the hybrid structure in idea generation (Dahan & Mendelson 2001;Kavadias & Sommer 2009;Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich 2010). The previous studies on the use of analogical reasoning in ideation task tested subjects either individual or nominal group (Dahl and Moreau, 2002). ...
... This implies that creative teams can pass creative knowledge to others through joint engagement. In reality, group work may lead to production blocking, group think, free-riding, or other hindrances (Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich, 2010), leaving this as an open empirical question. Additionally, this framework predicts that working alone will lead to creative capital generation akin to traditional learning-by-doing models. ...
... Participants in the baseline treatment worked alone for all three stages of the task, giving us a measure of how individuals perform over time without any interactions with other participants. This treatment was motivated by the extensive literature on learning-by-doing and the common finding from the brainstorming literature that teams are less effective than individuals (e.g., Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich (2010)), which is often used as a recommendation to avoid teams for creative tasks. Testing if learning-by-doing exists in the creative domain ties this work to the longer history of Adam Smith's pin factory example and provides one path for creative capital generation. ...
... On the one hand, chat interactions may help avoid identified problems with teams (Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich, 2010). On the other, this mode of communication may be less efficient and lead to fewer ideas being generated than when working together, which would lead to lower levels of creative capital creation. ...
... Other strategies rely on hybrid alternation of individual and group work, either individual-to-group or group-to-individual. Two studies found that individual-to-group is beneficial [6,34]. A follow-up study found that group-to-individual is rather beneficial [45]. ...
... expert-novice paradigm [60]). Third, previous studies have focused on idea generation [6,21,34,45,72]. Instead, we examine a comprehensive problem-solving process. ...
... In real-world situations, group members usually need to generate ideas, discuss, associate, and evaluate their ideas, and map out a representation that communicates the collective outcome. And finally, existing studies involved either group members discussing ideas verbally (face-to-face) [6,34], writing ideas on slips of papers individually and passing them to each other [45,72], or sharing ideas remotely through a computer [21][22][23]74]. Instead, we leverage the possibilities of faceto-face and a shared online whiteboard [41,92]. ...
Group work involves a myriad of complex processes encompassing social, perceptual, cognitive, and contextual factors. However, there is a lack of empirical research on computer-supported group work processes and their impact on outcomes at different stages of group work, especially when creativity and quality of outcomes are significant. Group work processes can interfere and hinder productivity, which we refer to as the "group folding effect. " We designed a three-stage process structuring to enhance group work productivity. In a field study, we examined how process structuring shapes productivity in two sub-studies: design and peer feedback, each with 40 participants (N = 40). The results revealed that process structuring significantly improved both the quantity and quality of productivity. Additionally, process structuring appeared to reduce inhibitory effects of group work, such as negative priming, fixation on familiar ideas, and social comparison. We discuss the implications of this research in supporting productive group work processes in collaborative tools and insights into a pattern of the group folding effect.
... El procés de "divergir abans de convergir" és útil per barrejar el pensament individual i la discussió de grup. Un estudi recent ha observat que els equips que utilitzen una estratègia híbrida són gairebé tres vegades més productius que els equips que simplement fan pluges d'idees.Girotra, K.;Terwiesch, C.;Ulrich, K. T. (2010): "Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea". Management Science, 56(4), 591-605. ...
... El procés de "divergir abans de convergir" és útil per barrejar el pensament individual i la discussió de grup. Un estudi recent ha observat que els equips que utilitzen una estratègia híbrida són gairebé tres vegades més productius que els equips que simplement fan pluges d'idees.Girotra, K.;Terwiesch, C.;Ulrich, K. T. (2010): "Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea". Management Science, 56(4), 591-605. ...
... El procés de "divergir abans de convergir" és útil per barrejar el pensament individual i la discussió de grup. Un estudi recent ha observat que els equips que utilitzen una estratègia híbrida són gairebé tres vegades més productius que els equips que simplement fan pluges d'idees.Girotra, K.;Terwiesch, C.;Ulrich, K. T. (2010): "Idea Generation and the Quality of the Best Idea". Management Science, 56(4), 591-605. ...
Un projecte d’innovació és una activitat en essència multidisciplinària, i aquest llibre justament és un recurs docent que integra i presenta de forma ordenada, coneixements propis dels àmbits del disseny, de la tecnologia i de la gestió. El fil conductor del llibre, és el seguiment des de l’inici d’un projecte d’innovació, i permet descobrir i aprofitar els coneixements i les tècniques que es proposen. Un projecte d’innovació respon sempre a una necessitat que té la gent, que es realitzable amb la tecnologia disponible i que es pot canalitzar al mercat gràcies a un model de negoci que el faci viable. La innovació requereix, en general, d’un equip, en el que hi conflueixin totes les disciplines, estils i visions que el projecte requereix.
... By integrating insights from the enrichment perspective of the family-work literature and the attention-based view, we argue CEOs who experience a high level of FWE are more likely to leverage advantages gained from the family domain to broaden and deepen their attention to innovation, enhancing search terrain distance and search persistence. High levels of search terrain distance and persistence not only enable CEOs to efficiently identify, filter, and select valuable knowledge and information for both exploitative and exploratory innovation (Girotra et al., 2010;Kornish & Ulrich, 2014) but also broaden their perspectives and deepen their understanding of existing and new information (Kiss et al., 2020;Li et al., 2013). This makes them more open to embracing discrepancies and considering synergies when allocating resources between exploratory and exploitative innovation activities (Li, 2014;Mei et al., 2023). ...
... CEOs who exhibit high levels of persistence in search activities continue to gather knowledge and information even after obtaining a satisfactory alternative, ensuring they do not miss better alternatives (Li et al., 2013;Schwenk, 1984). By maintaining sustained attention in a particular field, CEOs are exposed to a greater amount of knowledge and information, thus increasing the likelihood of identifying, filtering, and selecting the most valuable parts (Girotra et al., 2010;Kornish & Ulrich, 2014). This enables them to establish connections between exploratory and exploitative innovation, thereby better leveraging their synergistic potential and advancing organizational ambidexterity (Cao et al., 2009;Van Neerijnen et al., 2022). ...
How do chief executive officers’ (CEOs) experiences outside the work domain affect organizational ambidexterity? We examine the mechanisms through which CEO family-to-work enrichment (FWE) influences organizational ambidexterity. Building on the enrichment perspective of the family-work literature and the attention-based view, we argue that FWE broadens and deepens CEOs’ attention to innovation. This enables them to engage in distant and persistent knowledge and information searching, which helps them to pursue high levels of exploitative and exploratory innovation simultaneously. With a two-round sample of 136 CEOs from China, we find strong empirical support for our hypotheses and provide several theoretical and managerial implications.
... The generation phase is typically considered a variation phase, during which firms are concerned with simply generating as much creative input as possible (Girotra et al., 2010). In the next stage, a selection process starts, which is aimed at selecting the idea with the highest chance of gaining market acceptance once it is introduced in the market (Girotra et al., 2010). ...
... The generation phase is typically considered a variation phase, during which firms are concerned with simply generating as much creative input as possible (Girotra et al., 2010). In the next stage, a selection process starts, which is aimed at selecting the idea with the highest chance of gaining market acceptance once it is introduced in the market (Girotra et al., 2010). To do so, firms conduct market research (Kahn et al., 2006). ...
Nowadays, we are witnessing the exponential growth of Generative AI (GenAI), a group of AI models designed to produce new content. This technology is poised to revolutionize marketing research and practice. Since the marketing literature about GenAI is still in its infancy, we offer a technical overview of how GenAI models are trained and how they produce content. Following this, we construct a roadmap for future research on GenAI in marketing, divided into two main domains. The first domain focuses on how firms can harness the potential of GenAI throughout the innovation process. We begin by discussing how GenAI changes consumer behavior and propose research questions at the consumer level. We then connect these emerging consumer insights with corresponding firm marketing strategies, presenting research questions at the firm level. The second set of research questions examines the likely consequences of using GenAI to analyze: (1) the relationship between market-based assets and firm value, and (2) consumer skills, preferences, and role in marketing processes.
... We found that in the hybrid WFH ('treatment') group, attrition rates dropped by one-third (mean control = 7.20, mean treat = 4.80, t(1610) = 2.02, P = 0.043) and work satisfaction scores improved (mean control = 7.84, mean treat = 8. 19, t(1343) = 4.17, P < 0.001). Employees reported that WFH saved on commuting time and costs and afforded them the flexibility to attend to occasional personal tasks during the day (and catch up in the evenings or weekends). ...
... P < 0.001). This could be because hybrid WFH saves employees commuting time and is less physically tiring, and, with intermittent breaks between group time and quiet individual time, can improve performance [19][20][21][22] . ...
Working from home has become standard for employees with a university degree. The most common scheme, which has been adopted by around 100 million employees in Europe and North America, is a hybrid schedule, in which individuals spend a mix of days at home and at work each week1,2. However, the effects of hybrid working on employees and firms have been debated, and some executives argue that it damages productivity, innovation and career development3–5. Here we ran a six-month randomized control trial investigating the effects of hybrid working from home on 1,612 employees in a Chinese technology company in 2021–2022. We found that hybrid working improved job satisfaction and reduced quit rates by one-third. The reduction in quit rates was significant for non-managers, female employees and those with long commutes. Null equivalence tests showed that hybrid working did not affect performance grades over the next two years of reviews. We found no evidence for a difference in promotions over the next two years overall, or for any major employee subgroup. Finally, null equivalence tests showed that hybrid working had no effect on the lines of code written by computer-engineer employees. We also found that the 395 managers in the experiment revised their surveyed views about the effect of hybrid working on productivity, from a perceived negative effect (−2.6% on average) before the experiment to a perceived positive one (+1.0%) after the experiment. These results indicate that a hybrid schedule with two days a week working from home does not damage performance.
... At the end of the course, they presented their products in front of a jury panel composed of experts from industry and research. The jury evaluated the product quality through a quality scheme (Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich 2010). ...
... Subsequently, they had 5 minutes to ask questions and 10 more minutes to test and discuss the product in detail at a product fair with each team. The product quality assessment utilized a quality scheme (Girotra et al. 2010) comprising five metrics, namely: (1) technical feasibility (to what extent is the proposed product feasible to develop at a reasonable price with existing technology), (2) novelty (originality of the idea with respect to the unmet need and proposed solution), (3) specificity (the extent to which the idea included a proposed solution), (4) demand (reflecting market size and attractiveness) and (5) business value of the generated product idea (utility of the ideas to a commercial organization that might develop and sell the products). The jury was asked to rank each category on a scale from 1 (lowest value) to 10 (highest value). ...
Design education prepares novice designers to solve complex and challenging problems requiring diverse skill sets and an interdisciplinary approach. Hackathons, for example, offer a hands-on, collaborative learning approach in a limited time frame to gain practical experience and develop problem-solving skills quickly. They enable collaboration, prototyping and testing among interdisciplinary teams. Typically, hackathons strongly focus on the solution, assuming that this will support learning. However, building the best product and achieving a strong learning effect may not be related. This paper presents the results of an empirical study that examines the relationship between product quality, learning effect and effort spent in an academic 2-week hackathon. Thirty teams identified user problems in this course and developed hardware and mechatronic products. This study collected the following data: (1) effort spent during the hackathon through task tracking, (2) learning effect through self-assessment by the participants and (3) product quality after the hackathon by an external jury. The study found that the team effort spent has a statistically significant but moderate correlation with product quality. The correlation between product quality and learning effect is statistically insignificant, suggesting that for this setting, there is no relevant association.
... Innovation performance is influenced by the infrastructure of the organization, management support and involvement, and resource accessibility (Shane & Ulrich, 2004). The greatest ideas are conceived, prototypes are created, and new products are field tested towards the rear end of innovation (Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich, 2010). After developing a sales and market strategy, the new products are eventually launched. ...
... After developing a sales and market strategy, the new products are eventually launched. At this point, an organization's performance is determined by its ability to implement plans rapidly, make choices quickly, and have well-defined and coordinated procedures (Girotra, et al., 2010). At this point, speed, coordination, and discipline are essential for success (Börjesson & Elmquist, 2011) ...
This study's primary goal is to ascertain how innovative marketing and market-oriented internal marketing relate to one another and how this relationship affects performance in the mediating impact of innovative capability within Pakistan. To analyze the relationship between variables and accomplish the study's objective, 295 university student samples were used. The study's findings indicate that internal marketing plays a significant role in performance, meaning that an increase in internal marketing will improve an organization's performance. Innovative cultures have a big impact on how well an organization does; in Pakistan, any organization that has a strong creative culture will perform even better. Market orientation is also crucial for any organization. The study found that innovation is believed to have a mediating role in the relationship between market orientation and marketing performance.
... Prior empirical evidence in research contexts similar to ours have generally suggested that high expertise similarity is associated with poorer team inventive outcomes (Hargadon and Sutton 1997;Singh and Fleming 2010;Uzzi and Spiro 2005). One explanation for such negative outcomes is that high overlaps in expertise among team members can constrain teams from being able to tap into a greater pool of diverse ideas-the essential raw materials of innovation upon which creative and novel solutions are built (Girotra et al. 2010, Hargadon and Sutton 1997, Singh and Fleming 2010, Sosa 2011, Tortoriello et al. 2015. Furthermore, high expertise similarity may also prevent team members from viewing a problem from different perspectives, hampering the team's ability to search for novel solutions (Sutton and Hargadon 1996). ...
... reported here indicate that certain team composition factors-namely, a high degree of expertise similarity (Tortoriello et al. 2015), network cohesion (Fleming et al. 2007;Girotra et al. 2010), and mixed-gender composition (Nielsen et al. 2017, Nielsen andBörjeson 2019)-that appear to be innovation liabilities, on average, are actually beneficial when teams work on integral inventions. ...
Research has demonstrated that certain team composition factors—high expertise similarity, high network cohesion, and mixed‐gender teams—have predominantly negative effects on the teams’ invention outcomes. Yet these factors have also been shown to improve team coordination, which should (in theory) lead to better invention outcomes. We address this tension by highlighting the need to consider the invention's integrality, which increases task interdependencies among team members and thereby strengthens the positive relationship between team coordination and invention value. We hypothesize that (i) the main effects of these team composition factors reduce a team's invention value but, more importantly, that (ii) invention integrality positively moderates those effects. We support these claims with evidence from utility patent data filed in the United States during the period 1983–2015. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved
... The Componential Model of Creativity and Innovation emphasizes the interplay of individual and organizational factors in the innovation process [35]. Idea generation is a key process in organizational innovation, where cognitive flexibility is crucial for the development and refinement of different thought elements into actionable concepts [36], [37], [38]. Creativity involves combinatorial and exploratory approaches that require a comprehensive knowledge base and the ability to manipulate existing knowledge to develop meaningful and valuable ideas [39], [40]. ...
This study investigates the impact of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) on the dynam-ics and performance of innovation teams during the idea generation phase of the innovation process. Utilizing a custom AI-augmented ideation tool, the study applies the Knowledge Spill-over Theory of Entrepreneurship to understand the effects of AI on knowledge spillover, gen-eration and application. Through a framed field experiment with participants divided into exper-imental and control groups, findings indicate that AI-augmented teams generated higher quali-ty ideas in less time. GenAI application led to improved efficiency, knowledge exchange, in-creased satisfaction and engagement as well as enhanced idea diversity. These results high-light the transformative role of the field of AI within the innovation management domain and shows that GenAI has a positive impact on important elements of the Knowledge Spillover Theory of Entrepeneurship, emphasizing its potential impact on innovation, entrepreneurship, and economic growth. Future research should further explore the dynamic interaction be-tween GenAI and creative processes.
... As several studies show, virtual interactions may come with a cognitive cost for creative idea generation, mostly related due to the limited possibilities to communicate and the risk of misperceptions (Brucks et al, 2022). The findings challenge a study conducted by the University of Sydney in 2010, which initially found that virtual teams can generate more creative ideas than face-toface teams (Girotra et al., 2010). However, authors such as e.g. ...
This paper examines how open innovation can be organized in coworking spaces by exploring key concepts such as open innovation, sociomateriality, and dynamic capabilities.
Coworking spaces foster collaboration, knowledge sharing, and innovation through flexible environments that support creativity and community-building. The research highlights Yolk Coworking in Poland as an example of how coworking spaces adapt to changing environments, emphasizing the role of dynamic capabilities in maintaining competitive advantage.
The paper concludes that coworking spaces are uniquely positioned to support both individual productivity and collective creativity, with future research needed to explore cultural and regional influences.
... The ideation literature has further examined the characteristics and success potential of the generated ideas (Kornish & Jones, 2021;Kornish & Ulrich, 2014;Toubia & Netzer, 2017). It has also explored the ideation process, such as whether individual-then-teamwork or teamworkonly should be used during ideation (Girotra et al., 2010), or whether exposure to others' ideas helps or hurts creativity (Hofstetter et al., 2021;Koh & Cheung, 2022;Stephen et al., 2016). ...
Firms increasingly leverage idea markets, where participants (such as employees) generate, improve, and evaluate ideas on a collaborative digital platform. Different participants contribute differently to the ideation process, some generating high quality ideas while others initiating discussion threads and commenting on the ideas to further enhance the ideas’ quality. Such diverse contributions may be importantly influenced by the participants’ diverse social capital— resource access and status —in their pre-existing network. We theorize this relationship and further test our hypotheses by conducting two idea market studies, one involving only a firm’s employees (Study 1: closed innovation) and the other further incorporating non-employees (Study 2: open innovation). We show that the higher quality ideas are generated by the participants with greater resource access , whereas continued engagement , including contributing larger quantities of ideas, discussion threads, and comments, stems from those with higher status . These findings have important implications for ideator recruitment and idea market design.
... The parallel path effect suggests that developing multiple solutions to the same problem increases the likelihood of achieving a high-quality outcome (Boudreau et al. 2011, Dahan andMendelson 2001). Arguably, utilizing various approaches is particularly critical when the objective is to maximize the quality of a few top ideas instead of many average ones (Girotra et al. 2010). ...
The rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) open up attractive opportunities for creative problem-solving through human-guided AI partnerships. To explore this potential, we initiated a crowdsourcing challenge focused on sustainable, circular economy business ideas generated by the human crowd (HC) and collaborative human-AI efforts using two alternative forms of solution search. The challenge attracted 125 global solvers from various industries, and we used strategic prompt engineering to generate the human-AI solutions. We recruited 300 external human evaluators to judge a randomized selection of 13 out of 234 solutions, totaling 3,900 evaluator-solution pairs. Our results indicate that while human crowd solutions exhibited higher novelty—both on average and for highly novel outcomes—human-AI solutions demonstrated superior strategic viability, financial and environmental value, and overall quality. Notably, human-AI solutions cocreated through differentiated search, where human-guided prompts instructed the large language model to sequentially generate outputs distinct from previous iterations, outperformed solutions generated through independent search. By incorporating “AI in the loop” into human-centered creative problem-solving, our study demonstrates a scalable, cost-effective approach to augment the early innovation phases and lays the groundwork for investigating how integrating human-AI solution search processes can drive more impactful innovations.
Funding: This work was supported by Harvard Business School (Division of Research and Faculty Development) and the Laboratory for Innovation Science at Harvard (LISH) at the Digital Data and Design (D ³ ) Institute at Harvard.
Supplemental Material: The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.18430 .
... The parallel path effect suggests that developing multiple solutions to the same problem increases the likelihood of achieving a high-quality outcome (Dahan andMendelson 2001, Boudreau et al. 2011). Arguably, utilizing various approaches is particularly critical when the objective is to maximize the quality of a few top ideas instead of many average ones (Girotra et al. 2010). ...
... The parallel path effect suggests that developing multiple solutions to the same problem increases the likelihood of achieving a high-quality outcome (Dahan andMendelson 2001, Boudreau et al. 2011). Arguably, utilizing various approaches is particularly critical when the objective is to maximize the quality of a few top ideas instead of many average ones (Girotra et al. 2010). ...
... As well, they asserted that promoting user collaboration is a feasible design feature to enhance the effectiveness of idea competitions. Girotra et al. (2010) suggested four factors to measure the quality of the best idea. The four factors are average quality, the number of ideas, the variance, and the ability of the group to Identify the level of the idea. ...
Plain language summary
Understanding What Drives People to Recommend Online Platforms: Insights from a Study on Consumer Practices
Have you ever wondered why some people are eager to recommend online contests and platforms to others? Our study dives into this question, focusing on online consumer practices (OCPs) - basically, how people engage with online contests and platforms. We explored several factors that might influence someone’s decision to recommend these platforms to friends or colleagues. Firstly, we looked at “outcome expectations”– the belief that participating in an online contest can lead to positive outcomes, like learning something new or improving skills. Then, we considered “career benefits”– the idea that winning a contest could help someone’s job prospects. We also examined how the reputation of the company hosting the contest might affect recommendations, alongside “task identity” (how clear and specific the contest details are) and the duration of the contest (how long it runs). Our findings revealed some interesting points. For example, people are more likely to recommend contests when they believe participating could yield personal or professional gains. However, not all factors influenced recommendations equally. The reputation of the company hosting the contest mattered more to people than how well-defined the contest tasks were or how long the contest lasted. These insights are crucial for anyone organizing online contests or platforms, as they highlight the importance of framing these opportunities in a way that resonates with potential participants. By understanding what drives recommendations, organizers can better design and promote their contests, making them more appealing to a broader audience. In short, our study sheds light on the complex motivations behind recommending online platforms and contests, offering valuable guidelines for enhancing their appeal and reach.
... After brainstorming, thought selection or decision making is the second important stage. Research in the literature focuses more on the production of thought rather than deciding thoughts after brainstorming (Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich 2010). While the production of ideas is heavily focused, the selection process of the thoughts produced is often ignored. ...
This research method, which aimed to determine the effect of career indecision on the choice of an occupation was carried out as mixed method research which includes quantitative and qualitative research approaches. In the qualitative part of the research, scale items were identified by interviewing with fifteen teachers, who were selected via purposive sampling method and convenient sampling technique. Scale items were written by analyzing qualitative data with thematic and descriptive analysis. In quantitative part of the resaerch, the research sampling was selected from the teachers working in official schools in Karatay, Meram and Selçuklu districts located in the center of Konya province. As a result of the survey studies, n=397 valid survey forms were obtained from the teachers. In accordance with the expert judgments, a pilot implementation was initiated. In the study, both the structure validity and scope validity of the scales relating to career indecision and wrong choice of an occupation were analyzed and the validity was verified. The reliability levels of the scales were also found to be high. Furthermore, it was concluded that career idecision had a significant effect on wrong choice of an occupation by twenty-six percent [β=.26, p<.05].
... Specifically, we examine whether team members in an idea generation meeting notice when one team member steals another's idea. Idea generation is a critical function of organizational groups, allowing them to solve existing problems and create future innovations [10][11][12] . Therefore, individuals receiving credit for generating a good idea can yield reputational benefits, potentially leading to career advancement and financial rewards. ...
Using a virtual reality social experiment, participants (N = 154) experienced being at the table during a decision-making meeting and identified the best solutions generated. During the meeting, one meeting participant repeated another participant’s idea, presenting it as his own. Although this idea stealing was clearly visible and audible, only 30% of participants correctly identified who shared the idea first. Subsequent analyses suggest that the social environment affected this novel form of inattentional blindness. Although there was no experimental effect of team diversity on noticing, there was correlational evidence of an indirect effect of perceived team status on noticing via attentional engagement. In sum, this paper extends the inattentional blindness phenomenon to a realistic professional interaction and demonstrates how features of the social environment can reduce social inattention.
... However, research has remained divided on whether a collaborative culture is conducive to innovation (Staw, 2009). Some scholars have argued that there is a U-shaped effect of a collaborative culture, where a group is either collaborative or not collaborative (Rieger & Klarmann, 2022), and that excessive team collaboration not only increases the cost of collaboration but may also exclude creative and promising team outcomes (Tellis, 2013) instead of inhibiting corporate innovation (Girotra et al., 2010). Some scholars have also supported the idea of team brainstorming (Chen et al., 2022b), arguing that high levels of innovation occur in highly competitive and collaborative teams (Barczak et al., 2010) and that high-intensity collaboration results in the sharing of ideas and information (Collins & Smith, 2006), enhancing the innovative potential of teams (Colovic & Williams, 2020). ...
The principal-agent theory suggests that agents behave opportunistically to maximize their interests. Innovation is risky corporate behavior. Do agents of firms without actual controllers value innovation? We referred to the organic strategy perspective and use the OESP model(organisation-environment-strategy-performance) to research the innovation strategies of firms without actual controllers, and we found that non-actual controller significantly and positively affects innovation performance and can influence innovation performance by influencing firms’ innovation input decisions. Additionally, we found that cooperative culture positively contributes to the moderating effect on the innovation of firms with no actual controller. Furthermore, we divided firms with non-actual controller into state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and non-SOEs, and found that the effect on innovation performance was different for firms with different equity properties. Simultaneously, we discovered the effect of corporate reputation on the moderating effect of corporate cooperative culture; specifically, culture has a positive moderating effect on honest firms and a negative moderating effect on discredited firms. The findings of this study expand the boundaries of the applicability of principal-agent theory and place the problem in a dynamic context of thinking, providing a new perspective for future research on innovation without actual controllers.
... Next, another dimension that contributes specifically to the paradoxical leadership dimension of employeecreativity is enforcing work requirements while allowing flexibility. A study conducted by Girotra et al. (32) found that employees' will show their creativity when they are given space to handle their tasks individually. These results affirm this dimension because employees' have room to manage their work specifically. ...
... Idea generation plays a critical role in innovation as the ideation phase incorporates generating ideas and choosing opportunities among many (Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich, 2010). Findings show that output from preceding phases feed into the ideation phase of the design and development process, guiding design decisions for further improvements. ...
... Dean et al. (2006) highlight idea quality, novelty, and creativity as evaluation constructs. The quality of new products is multi-dimensional, considering factors such as attractiveness, feasibility, novelty, specificity, and market demand (Girotra et al., 2010). ...
Businesses constantly need novel ideas to sustain and grow. Ideation techniques often rely on human skills. It is difficult for untrained participants to be creative and arrive at high-quality ideas in quantity. Service design aids businesses to enhance their product and service offerings. Ideation processes in service design and business context need special attention considering the variety of stakeholders involved and their limited familiarity with creative techniques. We aim to make ideation more democratic and accessible to business stakeholders with a focus on quantity as well as quality. Using action research and research-through-design methods, we explored several approaches to enable collaborative ideation. We did this by leveraging creative techniques to enhance participants’ abilities to ideate effectively across design workshops. We discuss key takeaways and challenges from our experience, pointing towards looking at ideation as a lifecycle and the need to integrate service design sensitivity to ideation.
... Ideation is the phase where ideas for product innovations are both generated and eventually selected based on their commercialisation potential (Riel et al., 2013). Usually this phase involves the proposal of multiple ideas to start with and then subsequently narrowing down or shortlisting ideas for the next stages (Girotra et al., 2010). Ideally, this process is conducted with a team whose members have a diverse range of expertise (Park et al., 2012). ...
Start-ups and established organisations alike create business models around value propositions. This would make value propositions the core offering of value, around which business model efforts are based on. Products are created following successful validation of any identified value proposition. This research proposes a holistic approach to value proposition development, with the aim of helping software start-ups to quickly develop and scale their product development efforts. The proposed framework takes a process-based approach while remaining user-centric. It covers the whole spectrum of the value proposition development process ranging from the study of the user to managing growth-related aspects of the product and monitoring performance via the identification of key metrics. This end-to-end approach can help inexperienced start-up teams during their early development efforts and therefore lower the barriers of entry for the software startup space. Validation for the proposed framework is done using a case study approach of a successful value proposition by a former start-up.
... Its main advantage is maximizing the value of the highestperforming result (Terwiesch and Xu 2008). In innovation, it is not quantity but identifying the best opportunity that matters (Girotra, Terwiesch, and Ulrich 2010). Organizations that turn to innovation crowdsourcing (ICS) are looking for transformative solutions, not incremental improvements. ...
Crowdsourcing through virtual innovation contests have emerged as a prominent option for addressing creative and complex R&D problems. This approach is flexible, encourages voluntary participation, and combines competition and collaboration. Organizations that turn to innovation crowd-sourcing (ICS) are looking for transformative solutions, not incremental improvements. However, little is known about how to shape teams and optimize their capacity to create value in CS competitions. To address this knowledge gap, our study delves into analyzing how contest design influences participation structure and project value creation. Our approach extends the conclusions of previous research that emphasized the importance of motivation and active engagement as fundamental factors for effective problem-solving. Our research goes further by examining the role played by other dimensions of participation structure, such as team size, as well as solvers' social and intellectual capital.
... We thus posit how intellectual and relational market-based assets may serve as pathways for value creation from MICCs, and predict that investors will look for information signals to validate that the contest will likely realize these benefits. From an intellectual assets perspective, the firm and investors should be concerned with cues that indicate the expected quality of the best ideas generated (Girotra, Terwiesch, and Ulrich 2010). Whereas, from a relational assets perspective, investors should be primarily concerned with cues that affect the contest's expected engagement and buzz. ...
Firms often use crowdsourcing contests to develop marketing ideas and solutions. Despite the prevalence—and unique aspects—of marketing ideation crowdsourcing contests (MICCs), there has been little examination of these contests’ shareholder wealth implications. Adopting a signaling perspective, the authors conduct an event study of 508 MICC announcements and find that they are associated with higher returns, but also higher idiosyncratic risk, indicating that investors hold a mixed view of such contests. Further, the authors consider how contest design factors and firm marketing resources may signal the cultivation of intellectual and relational market-based assets to shape their stock market impact, providing firms guidance to better design their MICCs. Specifically, they find that returns are enhanced when firms use professional (vs. general public) contests, specifically scoped contests, and contests using crowd judging (vs. expert panels), and for firms with stronger marketing capabilities. However, brand factors have mixed effects on returns, with a brand's relevant stature having a positive effect and its energized differentiation having a negative effect on returns. Product MICCs and generally scoped contests heighten the negative effects on risk, whereas marketing resources have no impact. Results offer implications for practitioners, including the finding that many MICC design choices commonly used in practice (i.e., general public contests and expert panels) are viewed less favorably by investors.
... Although team members' age does not affect the innovative teams' network characteristics , cross-cultural issues do seem to affect innovation within teams by instigating creativity; even though the diverse workforce may have difficulties regarding working patterns and communication values (Bouncken et al., 2016). Thus, creativity is considered a precursor to idea generation and implementation (Girotra et al., 2010). ...
... Specifically, we examine whether team members in an idea generation meeting notice when one team member steals another's idea. Idea generation is a critical function of organizational groups, allowing them to solve existing problems and create future innovations [10][11][12] . Therefore, individuals receiving credit for generating a good idea can yield reputational benefits, potentially leading to career advancement and financial rewards. ...
... Apart from employee voting, we asked senior managers to evaluate the submitted ideas in terms of novelty, feasibility, and impact, following previous research. 11,12 Senior managers from 53 FQHCs evaluated the ideas from their own organization in these dimensions on a scale of 1 (low) and 5 (high), without knowing who submitted which idea or how the ideas fared in voting. ...
Background
Engaging frontline clinicians and staff in quality improvement is a promising bottom-up approach to transforming primary care practices. This may be especially true in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs) and similar safety-net settings where large-scale, top-down transformation efforts are often associated with declining worker morale and increasing burnout. Innovation contests, which decentralize problem-solving, can be used to involve frontline workers in idea generation and selection.
Objective
We aimed to describe the ideas that frontline clinicians and staff suggested via organizational innovation contests in a national sample of 54 FQHCs.
Interventions
Innovation contests solicited ideas for improving care from all frontline workers—regardless of professional expertise, job title, and organizational tenure and excluding those in senior management—and offered opportunities to vote on ideas.
Participants
A total of 1,417 frontline workers across all participating FQHCs generated 2,271 improvement opportunities.
Approaches
We performed a content analysis and organized the ideas into codes (e.g., standardization, workplace perks, new service, staff relationships, community development) and categories (e.g., operations, employees, patients).
Key Results
Ideas from frontline workers in participating FQHCs called attention to standardization ( n = 386, 17%), staffing ( n = 244, 11%), patient experience ( n = 223, 10%), staff training ( n = 145, 6%), workplace perks ( n = 142, 6%), compensation ( n = 101, 5%), new service ( n = 92, 4%), management-staff relationships ( n = 82, 4%), and others. Voting results suggested that staffing resources, standardization, and patient communication were key issues among workers.
Conclusions
Innovation contests generated numerous ideas for improvement from the frontline. It is likely that the issues described in this study have become even more salient today, as the COVID-19 pandemic has had devastating impacts on work environments and health/social needs of patients living in low-resourced communities. Continued work is needed to promote learning and information exchange about opportunities to improve and transform practices between policymakers, managers, and providers and staff at the frontlines.
... External search takes various forms, such as alliances (Ahuja, 2000;Gulati, Wohlgezogen, & Zhelyazkov, 2012;Katila, Piezunka, Reineke, & Eisenhardt 2022;Lavie, Stettner & Tushman, 2010), open innovation (Laursen & Salter, 2006;West & Boger, 2017), user-based innovation (Chatterji & Fabrizio, 2012;Katila, Thatchenkery, Christensen, & Zenios, 2017;Shah, 2006;von Hippel, 1986), innovation tournaments (Boudreau, Lacetera, & Lakhani 2011;Hu, Huizingh, & Bijmolt, 2022;Terwiesch & Ulrich, 2009), platform-based business models (Kapoor & Agarwal, 2017;Kretschmer, Leiponen, Schilling, & Vasudeva, 2022;Jacobides, Cennamo, & Gawer, 2021;Rietveld, Schilling, & Bellavitis, 2019), open source (Dahlander & Wallin, 2006;O'Mahony & Bechky, 2008;O'Mahony & Karp, 2022), corporate venture capital (Drover, Busenitz, Matusik, Townsend, Anglin, & Dushnitsky, 2019;Dushnitsky & Lenox, 2005), hiring (Marx, Strumsky, & Fleming, 2009;Rosenkopf & Almeida, 2003), professional service firms (Wagner, Hoisl, & Thoma, 2014), crowdsourcing (Bayus, 2013;Lifshitz-Assaf, Tushman, & Lakhani, 2018;Mickeler, Khashabi, Kleine, & Kretschmer, 2023;Riedl, Grad, & Lettl, 2021;Zaggl, Malhotra, Alexy, & Majchrzak, 2023), or hackathons (Bernstein, 2018;Fang, Wu, & Clough, 2021;Park, von Krogh, Stadtfeld, Meboldt & Shrestha 2023). The often-described appeal of these forms of external search is that they are supposed to allow organizations to access a broad(er) set of diverse ideas, which has been linked to the generation of breakthrough innovations (Afuah & Tucci, 2010;Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich, 2010;Jeppesen & Lakhani, 2010). ...
... By combining both design histories and final outcomes, it is possible to evaluate the effectiveness of an exploration mode, as described in [31]. In this study, a design history includes: The data relating to these design histories were collected in real-time as the participants performed the study. ...
Typical parametric approaches restrict the exploration of diverse designs by generating variations based on a baseline design. In contrast, generative models provide a solution by leveraging existing designs to create compact yet diverse generative design spaces (GDSs). However, the effectiveness of current exploration methods in complex GDSs, especially in ship hull design, remains unclear. To that end, we first construct a GDS using a generative adversarial network, trained on 52,591 designs of various ship types. Next, we constructed three modes of exploration, random (REM), semi-automated (SAEM) and automated (AEM), with varying levels of user involvement to explore GDS for novel and optimised designs. In REM, users manually explore the GDS based on intuition. In SAEM, both the users and optimiser drive the exploration. The optimiser focuses on exploring a diverse set of optimised designs, while the user directs the exploration towards their design preference. AEM uses an optimiser to search for the global optimum based on design performance. Our results revealed that REM generates the most diverse designs, followed by SAEM and AEM. However, the SAEM and AEM produce better-performing designs. Specifically, SAEM is the most effective in exploring designs with a high trade-off between novelty and performance. In conclusion, our study highlights the need for innovative exploration approaches to fully harness the potential of GDS in design optimisation.
... In fact, there is zero correlation between the quantity and the quality of generated ideas. In addition, relying on the ideas of others is counterproductive [5]. People do not create more ideas and ideas that build on previous concepts are not better. ...
Brainstorming has been established as the gold standard in generating new creative and innovative ideas in organizations. However, brainstorming is less efficient than it seems. This article discusses brainstorming as a method for innovation and highlights managerial insights to improve the generation of innovative concepts.
... The simpler recipes proposed by the students in the simple brainstorming exercise had a high score on 'workability' and a minimum score on 'novelty'. The introduction of the DT exercise brought a significant (p < 0.05) decrease in 'workability', but with a significantly large increase in the 'novelty' scores ( Fig. 4), meaning that a hybrid creative model may improve idea quality, as already reported by Girotra et al. (2010). The lower initial 'novelty' scores may be explained by the lower exposure to real-world (food service) situations, as many of the MSc students were coming directly from their BSc courses, with a very short professional experience. ...
Portugal is the greatest European rice consumer. Thus, incorporating whole rice and rice bran in innovative rice products is challenging. An experimental method based on the creativity association theory was applied. A group of nine students performed simple brainstorming to generate recipe ideas. Following the Design Thinking approach, a group of nine chefs received a stimulus to generate words related to rice recipes, working as a stimulus for a group of 14 students to generate recipe ideas. All ideas from both groups were evaluated by the chefs. The inclusion of stimuli led to more creative ideas from young aspiring chefs.
... Effective idea generation is the foundation for success to ensure that all options of a problem are explored, and it is not just the first idea thought of that is seen as the solution, and therefore, this gives a better chance of success. The success of idea generation usually depends on the quality of the best opportunities identified rather than the quantity [2]. This highlights the importance of idea generation as a key skill for graduate engineers. ...
... However, improving R&D productivity requires overcoming two key challenges: (i) consistently coming up with promising new ideas and (ii) systematically selecting and supporting ideas that deliver value. Although the generation of new ideas is necessary for success and has attracted substantial attention (Osborn 1960, Stevens and Burley 1997, Girotra et al. 2010, Sommer et al. 2020, it is not sufficient. In many industries, the question of how to effectively allocate scarce resources across different projects has become a pressing concern and key challenge to achieving success Chao 2007, Ding et al. 2014). ...
Project selection decisions are complex because they must balance not only financial returns, project risk, and fit with strategy, but also competitive circumstances. A rival’s project development efforts provide two pieces of information: a market rivalry signal, indicating potentially heightened competition in a market, and a technological signal, indicating a possible solution to a problem in that market. We hypothesize that these signals affect a firm’s likelihood of project selection in opposite directions, and that the timing of the signals matters for selection. We examine the drug development pipelines of the top 15 pharmaceutical companies from 1999 to 2016 to examine how rival projects drive the decision to progress a drug from preclinical laboratory trials to clinical trials in humans. Early-stage rival projects provide a stronger market rivalry signal, and they are associated with a decreased likelihood of the firm selecting its own project to compete in the same market. Late-stage rival projects signal technological feasibility and are associated with an increase in the likelihood of selection. We then exploit heterogeneity in market potential (i.e., disorder prevalence/incidence) and a molecular compound’s technology (i.e., therapeutic modality) to independently manipulate the salience of the two signals. Finally, we provide evidence on how selection based on rival signals informs project success. Information from rival projects prompts the selection of more successful drugs, but only after a threshold when sufficient uncertainty has been resolved.
This paper was accepted by Jayashankar Swaminathan, operations management.
Supplemental Material: Data and the online appendix are available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2022.4642 .
... Assessment of the opportunity might include assessing the strategic, market, and fi nancial variables such as risk, expected demand, industry profi ts, technology cycles, competition density, technical feasibility, and novelty (Belousova, et al., 2009;Girotra, Terwiesch and Ulrich, 2010;Belousova and Gailly, 2013b). Assessment can also lead to recognition of additional opportunities or adjustments to the initial idea (Ardichvili, et al, 2003). ...
Intrapreneurship combines entrepreneurship and innovation, being entrepreneurial behaviour of employees, an individual intention or drive to innovate in an organisation. Intrapreneurship is recognised in the literature as a vital element of economic and organisational competitiveness, growth, and success. In contemporary organisations, employees are increasingly required to deal with or initiate change and propose innovative product or process ideas, i.e. employees are expected to behave intrapreneurially. Therefore, organisations need to find ways to foster intrapreneurial behaviour of employees, i.e. intrapreneurship. The dissertation addresses the research problem: how can intrapreneurship be fostered in organisations through education and training?
While intrapreneurship is gaining increasing attention both in academia and management practice, the intrapreneurship research field is lacking a clear conceptual framework. Addressing the need for an integrative systematic framework of intrapreneurship, a conceptual (theoretical) research study is conducted, integrating prior knowledge and research in intrapreneurship, applying critical thinking, conceptual reasoning, conceptual synthesis, and conceptual modelling as research methods. In the development of the conceptual models, the author employs deductive, inductive, and abductive reasoning, moving from description to prescription, building from and upon extant literature and secondary empirical data from case studies of intrapreneurship projects. Addressing the need for educational and training interventions aimed at developing intrapreneurship competence of learners, development type design research is conducted, which has the dual purpose of developing research-based educational interventions as solutions to complex problems in educational practice and advancing the knowledge about the characteristics of these interventions and the processes of designing and developing them in the form of design principles.
The dissertation provides a conceptual framework for operationalising intrapreneurship and how intrapreneurship can be fostered in organisations through education and training. The author’s main contributions to the knowledge base in the management research field are: the model of intrapreneurship process, the model of intrapreneurship project, the model of intrapreneurial organisation, the model of intrapreneurship competence, and the set of design principles for designing educational and training
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interventions aimed at developing intrapreneurship competence of learners. These contributions have potential practical implications for managers and management of organisations and educational institutions. From the organisational manager’s perspective, the contributions provide knowledge about how to manage and foster intrapreneurship in organisations. From the education manager’s perspective, the contributions provide knowledge about how to develop the intrapreneurship competence of learners.
... One way to interpret our findings in the larger context of team innovation is to consider one classic process suggestion for creative thinking in teams: asynchronous brainstorming (Girotra, Terwiesch, & Ulrich, 2010;Paulus, Korde, Dickson, Carmeli, & Cohen-Meitar, 2015). ...
Organizations often leverage cross-functional teams to create innovative solutions and products, yet collaboration across functional boundaries is inherently challenging. Research on small teams has largely suggested that, to facilitate team creative outcomes, subgroups should integrate across functional boundaries by increasing communication. In contrast, research on larger cross-functional teams (e.g., multiteam systems) has suggested that too much communication across knowledge domains can worsen team outcomes. Using a quasi-experimental design, we investigate the influence of these two different team structures on cross-functional team communication and subsequent innovation outcomes. Contrary to the prevailing recommendation for an integrated team structure in small teams, results illustrate that integrating teams, and the resultant extensive cross-functional communication, does not enhance team innovation outcomes. Rather, teams with greater functional subgroup differentiation, though exhibiting relatively less cross-functional communication, exhibit greater cross-functional synthesis. These results suggest important implications for managers of cross-functional knowledge integration work, as well as the future study of cross-functional teamwork of all sizes.
... This is because evidence from prior research is scarce and equivocal. Most research has focused on the evaluation of relatively mature ideas at later stages of the creative process (Blair & Mumford, 2007;Girotra et al., 2010;Rietzschel et al., 2010). The few studies examining the selection of early-stage ideas suggest that while individuals can identify their more novel ideas fairly accurately (Berg, 2019;Sidi et al., 2020;Silvia, 2008), they may have an implicit bias against them, thus favoring less risky ideas that offer more certainty (Mueller et al., 2011). ...
Creativity depends on individuals' willingness to invest in their novel ideas early in the creative process. Burgeoning research on idea evaluation suggests that while people can identify their novel ideas, they may reject them because they are risky and uncertain. Selecting novel ideas is crucial at the earliest phase of the creative process, in which individuals may evaluate several generated ideas to identify those they want to develop and share with others. To uncover when and why people select these ideas, we develop and test theory on the early-stage selection of novel ideas. Integrating theory from attachment, self-construal, and creativity we posit that creators can become attached to, and therefore select their early-stage novel ideas when the idea features affirm core aspects of their self. Individuals with an independent self-construal wish to affirm their unique identity and idiosyncratic agenda and thus are more likely to feel attached to, and select their novel ideas. In contrast, individuals with an interdependent self-construal are less likely to become attached to novel ideas, because these ideas do not validate their self. Findings from a field study on three early-stage hackathons and three experiments support our theory. Our research points to idea attachment as a new mechanism that explains when and why creators embrace early-stage novel ideas.
سعى البحث إلى تحديد تأثير عوامل النجاح الاستراتيجي في صياغة استراتيجية العمليات، وتمثلت مشكلة البحث في صياغة أسئلة تهدف إلى اختبار العلاقات التأثيرية بين متغيرات البحث. وقد صاغ الباحثان مخطط البحث الفرضي الذي يسهم في الوقوف على طبيعة علاقات الارتباط والتأثير القائمة بين متغيراتها المتمثلة بعوامل النجاح الاستراتيجي كمتغير مستقل ودوره في صياغة استراتيجية العمليات كمتغير معتمد. واختيرت الشركات الصناعية المتوسطة في محافظة نينوى مجتمعاً لتطبيق الجانب الميداني من البحث، وتم اختيار (60) مديراً منها لاستقصاء آرائهم فيما يتعلق بالاستبانة. اعتمد البحث المنهج الوصفي التحليلي في جمع البيانات الخاصة بمتغيرات البحث، وتم تصميم استبانة البحث اعتماداً على الدراسات السابقة، ووزعت على عينة قصدية من مديري الشركات الصناعية المبحوثة، وجرى تحليل البيانات المتحصل عليها والمعبرة عن مواقف المستجيبين باستخدام مجموعة من الأساليب الإحصائية وفق البرنامج الاحصائي (SPSS V26)، للحصول على الأوساط الحسابية والانحرافات المعيارية ونسب الاستجابة وعلاقات الارتباط والتأثير. وأكدت النتائج دعماً واثباتاً لفروضها وايجابية أهدافها وسريان مخططها، وجاء التحقق الميداني متناسقاً مع الأهداف النظرية، ووجود علاقات تأثير بين متغيرات البحث وأبعادها. والتي تُشير أبرزها بأن هناك تأثير ذات دلالة معنوية لأبعاد النجاح الإستراتيجي في صياغة استراتيجية العمليات.
To hedge unforeseen risk, investors may seek to fund male-led ventures that they anticipate most other investors will prefer, arriving at decisions biased against women. Yet, little is known about how investors infer such gendered preferences and when they are particularly likely to do so. Integrating insights from third-party bias research with social role theory, we posit that when women propose novel ventures, investors are more apt to make unpromising social approval forecasting—an anticipation of the extent to which other investors will endorse these ventures—and thus withhold funding support. This is because the intensified gender role violations due to women being entrepreneurial in tandem with being novel lead investors to impose harsher judgments that these ventures violate normative business practices. Our hypotheses received support from results of three methodologically complementary studies, including an archival study of Shark Tank (2009-2019) coupled with preregistered online and field experiments. By casting light on how venture novelty, a key determining factor of entrepreneurial success, makes third-party bias against women particularly salient, our work identifies a less overt “entrepreneurial gender dilemma” and derives new insights into policy making designed to help women entrepreneurs surmount financial and social barriers in the innovation-based economy.
Medical research works in trajectories. Scientists and researchers must choose to pursue certain scientific pathways and omit others, limited by resources, attention, and time. The trajectory of medical progress is therefore characterized by two crucial characteristics: rate and direction. These two components form the foundation for this book - what are the forces that determine the rate and direction of progress in medicine? This book brings together the worlds of scientific policy, economics, sociology, philosophy, and innovation to describe why the world of medical research looks the way it does. The book also addresses fundamental contemporary issues in medicine, how they influence progress, and how we might improve medical research going forward. The contemporary issues discussed include: flawed incentive structures, a concentration of power and resources among few actors and disease groups, the potential distortionary effects of lobbying by different scientific actors, and missing novelty in drug development.
To fuel the innovation process with high‐quality ideas, firms are increasingly soliciting ideas from their employee workforce and involving them in idea contests. During an idea contest employees suggest ideas on a firm‐internal, digital idea platform. Once submitted, idea holders can receive constructive feedback from colleagues on their ideas – which has been advanced as positive instrument for stimulating idea improvement and idea quality. Examining three firm‐internal, multi‐staged idea contests that generated 395 ideas from a global management consulting firm, we examine under what conditions constructive feedback positively influences idea quality. We focus on the hierarchical roles of feedback providers and receivers and the role of feedback overlap (which indicates whether feedback focuses on similar issues). We find that the effect of constructive feedback on idea quality is larger when feedback providers have a higher hierarchical rank, but that this effect does not depend on the hierarchical rank of feedback recipients. Further, we show that (partial) feedback overlap strengthens idea quality. Our results generate new insights for both idea‐contributing employees and innovation managers about the important role of managing feedback during idea contests.
This paper investigates venture capital decision‐making, a process that occurs under changing conditions and limited, ambiguous information. We shed new light on the inherent dynamics of this strategic process. One of the key distinguishing features of our study is its unprecedented access to the internal decision‐making process of a venture capital firm. By analyzing unique, longitudinal data capturing 2,383 proposal selection processes conducted over the life of one venture capital fund, we show how decision‐making speed and the information cues that decision makers rely upon will, over time, change in systematic and predictable ways. Specifically, our approach allows us to identify fundamental, unexplored patterns with respect to the selection process as a whole and the multiple stages within the process Each year venture capitalists receive hundreds of investment proposals, but is every proposal received by a venture capitalist processed equally? In this study, we show how the source of a proposal and the available amount of investment capital, factors that are not contained within the pages of a proposal, may influence the investment decision making process. Our results highlight the impact of being referred to a venture capitalist by a trusted source, as more time is spent evaluating these proposals and they proceed further along in the process. We also find that venture capitalists process proposals more quickly as the capital in the fund is invested over the life of the fund. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
Collocating manufacturing with either the market or with R&D encourages innovation: Customer ideas are more easily communicated, and product and process innovations are more rapidly tested. We develop a system dynamics model of the interaction between responsiveness and innovation. We demonstrate how real options-created when decisions about what will be produced respond to demand information-generate follow-on options through innovation.
Experimental research indicates that people in face-to-face brainstorming meetings are less efficient at generating ideas than when working alone, This so-called productivity loss has led many brainstorming researchers to conclude that there is overwhelming evidence for the ineffectiveness of these sessions, We question this conclusion because it is based on efficient idea generation as the primary effectiveness outcome and on studies that do not examine how or why organizations use brainstorming. We report a qualitative study of a product design firm that uses brainstorming sessions. These sessions had six important consequences for this firm, its design engineers, and its clients that are not evident in the brainstorming literature, or are reported but not labeled as effectiveness outcomes: (1) supporting the organizational memory of design solutions; (2) providing skill variety for designers; (3) supporting an attitude of wisdom (acting with knowledge while doubting what one knows); (4) creating a status auction (a competition for status based on technical skill); (5) impressing clients; and (6) providing income for the firm, This study suggests that when brainstorming sessions are viewed in organizational context and the ''effectiveness at what'' and ''effectiveness for whom'' questions are asked, efficiency at idea generation may deserve no special status as an effectiveness outcome. We propose a broader perspective for assessing brainstorming effectiveness in organizations.
We conducted four experiments to investigate free riding, evaluation apprehension, and production blocking as explanations of the difference in brainstorming productivity typically observed between real and nominal groups. In Experiment 1, we manipulated assessment expectations in group and individual brainstorming. Although productivity was higher when subjects worked under personal rather than collective assessment instructions, type of session still had a major impact on brainstorming productivity under conditions that eliminated the temptation to free ride. Experiment 2 demonstrated that inducing evaluation apprehension reduced productivity in individual brainstorming. However, the failure to find an interaction between evaluation apprehension and type of session in Experiment 3 raises doubts about evaluation apprehension as a major explanation of the productivity loss in brainstorming groups. Finally, by manipulating blocking directly, we determined in Experiment 4 that production blocking accounted for most of the productivity loss of real brainstorming groups. The processes underlying production blocking are discussed, and a motivational interpretation of blocking is offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
We examine how knowledge and experience affect both the mean and variance values of innovations from individuals and teams. We apply and extend theory on innovativeness and creativity to propose that holding multiple knowledge domains produces novel combinations that increase the variance of product performance; and that extensive experience produces outputs with high average performance. We analyzed innovations in the comic book industry, finding that innovations with extreme success and failure are affected by similar factors as high-performing innovations. Multi-member teams and teams with experience working together produced innovations with greater variation in value, but individuals were able to combine knowledge diversity more effectively than teams.
Since Osborn's Applied Imagination book in 1953 (Osborn, A. F. 1953. Applied Imagination: Principles and Procedures of Creative Thinking. Charles Scribner's Sons, New York), the effectiveness of brainstorming has been widely debated. While some researchers and practitioners consider it the standard idea generation and problem-solving method in organizations, part of the social science literature has argued in favor of nominal groups, i.e., the same number of individuals generating solutions in isolation. In this paper, we revisit this debate, and we explore the implications that the underlying problem structure and the team diversity have on the quality of the best solution as obtained by the different group configurations. We build on the normative search literature of new product development, and we show that no group configuration dominates. Therefore, nominal groups perform better in specialized problems, even when the factors that affect the solution quality exhibit complex interactions (problem complexity). In cross-functional problems, the brainstorming group exploits the competence diversity of its participants to attain better solutions. However, their advantage vanishes for extremely complex problems.
Four experiments were conducted to identify the mechanisms that mediate the impact of production blocking on the productivity of idea-generating groups and to test procedural arrangements that could lessen its negative impact. Experiment 1 manipulated the length of group and individual sessions. Although Experiment 1 failed to find a closing of the productivity gap over time in equal man-hour comparisons, real 4-person groups produced more than nominal groups when given 4 times as much time. Because lengthening the time of session increases thinking as well as speaking time, speaking time was manipulated in Experiment 2. The finding that individuals who brainstormed for 20 min but were allowed to talk either for all or for only ƈ of the time did not differ in productivity eliminates differences in speaking time as an explanation of the productivity loss in idea-generating groups. In Experiments 3 and 4, procedural strategies to lessen the impact of blocking were examined.
Several of the largest marketing research suppliers estimate that 70 to 90% of their clients use purchase intention scales in some form on a regular basis. Though there have been many studies of purchase intention, relatively few researchers have tried to relate purchase intention to actual purchase behavior. Those who have attempted to relate the two often have found substantial variation between stated intention and actual behavior. The authors have collected what they believe is the largest and most comprehensive database on purchase intention and actual purchase behavior for new products yet developed. They use different models in a comparison of predictive accuracy when stated intentions data are adjusted by separate perceptions of products such as willingness to consult others before purchase, affordability, liking, and availability.
Several of the largest marketing research suppliers estimate that 70 to 90% of their clients use purchase intention scales in some form on a regular basis. Though there have been many studies of purchase intention, relatively few researchers have tried to relate purchase intention to actual purchase behavior. Those who have attempted to relate the two often have found substantial variation between stated intention and actual behavior. The authors have collected what they believe is the largest and most comprehensive database on purchase intention and actual purchase behavior for new products yet developed. They use different models in a comparison of predictive accuracy when stated intentions data are adjusted by separate perceptions of products such as willingness to consult others before purchase, affordability, liking, and availability.
This article reports the results of a meta-analytic integration of previous research on productivity loss in brainstorming groups. The following patterns were observed: Generally, brainstorming groups are significantly less productive than nominal groups, in terms of both quantity and quality. Stronger productivity Toss was demonstrated in the context of (a) larger groups, (b) experimenter presence, (c) tape-recorded vocalization of contributions (vs. writing of contributions), and (d) in comparison to a nominal group of truly Alone individuals (vs. a nominal group of Together individuals). These patterns are (a) highly consistent with predictions derived from social psychological explanatory mechanisms, and (b) only marginally consistent with procedural explanatory mechanisms, and (c) highly inconsistent with economic explanatory mechanisms. This article considers the implications of these patterns for the use of, and for future research on, brainstorming.
This study investigated the differential effects of task design and reward system design on group functioning; the effectiveness of ''hybrid'' groups, in which groups' tasks and/or rewards have both individual and group elements; and how individuals' preferences for autonomy moderate their responses to interdependence at work. An intervention in the reward system at a large U.S. corporation created group, individual, and hybrid rewards for 150 existing teams of technicians that had group, hybrid, or individual tasks. Groups performed best when their tasks and outcomes were either pure group or pure individual. Hybrid groups performed quite poorly, had low-quality interaction processes, and low member satisfaction. Task and outcome interdependence affected different aspects of group functioning: Tasks influenced variables related to cooperation, while outcomes influenced variables related to effort. Individuals' autonomy preferences did not moderate the effects of task and reward interdependence but, instead, were themselves influenced by the amount of interdependence in the work. These findings have implications for the design of work and reward systems for work groups.
There is pervasive evidence that people produce more ideas and more good ideas when working alone rather than in groups. This chapter will first review the evidence for the productivity loss in brainstorming groups and then evaluate the various theoretical explanations which have been offered to account for these findings in the light of empirical research. This evidence suggests that the productivity loss in idea-generating groups is caused mainly by mutual production blocking due to the constraint on groups that members can talk only in turn. We then discuss various strategies that have been developed to overcome the disruptive effects of production blocking. However, since so far even the most successful strategies have raised the productivity of group members only to the level they would have achieved if they had worked individually, our final section discusses an ‘illusion of group effectivity’ as a reason for the persistence of the belief that group discussions are an effective means of generating ideas.
In a typical innovation process, the innovator identifies or generates a set of raw opportunities or "ideas" before selecting one or more for further investment. This mode of innovation can be thought of as search within the opportunity space. In this paper we characterize some properties of innovation opportunity spaces as reflected by the set of ideas collected, and address three main questions: (1) When a large number of independent efforts to generate ideas are conducted in parallel, how likely are the resulting ideas to be redundant? (2) Do independent exploration efforts tend to result in clusters of similar opportunities or more uniformly distributed opportunities? (3) Are isolated opportunities more valuable than those that are located within clusters of similar opportunities? Our approach is to analyze the similarity of raw opportunities within five data sets comprised of between 232 and 311 ideas each. These data were gathered incidentally to our teaching university electives on innovation over a three-year period. We estimate similarity using a novel coding method performed by 230 independent judges. We estimate the quality of the opportunities based on 10-20 peer evaluations for each idea. We find that there is remarkably little redundancy in opportunities. For one broadly defined domain, 90 percent of ideas were unique, and for a very narrow domain, 68 percent were unique. We find that there is more redundancy as the innovation problem is defined more narrowly. We find that opportunities are located in clusters, apparently aligned with areas of high perceived user need. Finally, we find that opportunities that are similar to other opportunities are not necessarily of lower quality; for two of the five domains, we find that quality is increasing and then decreasing in the number of similar opportunities.
We model concept testing in new product development as a search for the most profitable solution to a design problem. When allocating resources, developers must balance the cost of testing multiple designs against the potential profits that may result. We propose extreme-value theory as a mathematical abstraction of the concept-testing process. We investigate the trade-off between the benefits and costs of parallel concept testing and derive closed-form solutions for the case of profits that follow extreme-value distributions. We analyze the roles of the scale and tail-shape parameters of the profit distribution as well as the cost of testing in determining the optimal number of tests and total budget for the concept phase of NPD. Using an example, we illustrate how to estimate and interpret the scale and tail-shape parameters. We find that the impact of declining concept-testing costs on expected profits, the number of concepts tested, and total spending depend on the scale/cost ratio and tail-shape parameter of the profit distribution.
Are lone inventors more or less likely to invent breakthroughs? Recent research has attempted to resolve this question by considering the variance of creative outcome,distributions. It has implicitly assumed a symmetric thickening or thinning of both tails, that a greater probability of breakthroughs comes at the cost of a greater probability of failures.In contrast, we propose that collaboration can have opposite effects at the two extremes: it reduces the probability of very poor outcomes,– due to more
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