No full-text available
To read the full-text of this research,
you can request a copy directly from the authors.
RETHINKING IDEA ASSESSMENT: THE GENERATIVE APPROACH
Abstract
A problem with well-established criteria assessment models is that promising ideas might be rejected for not fulfilling the assessment criterion or for not being adequately described. In other words, assessing an idea in the early stages can be as difficult as assessing a rough diamond, since the value of a diamond cannot be determined until it has been cut and polished. The framework presented in the paper identifies a number of causes for idea rejection and suggests a method to overcome these obstacles. The paper proposes that if ideas are viewed as a problem and solution, then inclusion of the user and producer perspectives can improve the overall idea quality. This leads to the proposition that an idea refinement process should complement the traditional idea evaluation models in order to include the use and technology knowledge into idea redesign. The managerial impact of this paper is significant since it reframes what idea assessment is; it stretches the concept from merely being considered a selection process to one that includes generative (creative) activities and thereby nurtures potentially good ideas that might otherwise be rejected. The paper also presents a conceptual model that helps visualise the assessment process for practitioners and demonstrates its construction.
ResearchGate has not been able to resolve any citations for this publication.
Idea evaluation is a vital stage in the front end of innovation, which helps managers decide the direction of future innovation projects. Often, idea evaluations are crowdsourced from users in order to know their preferences. However, since early ideas are incomplete, evaluations may be exposed to cognitive bias. Previous research suggests that people have a tendency to fill in the gaps in idea descriptions and understand them implicitly, but this can lead to additional processing and result in the undervaluation of the idea. This study tests the relationship between idea completeness, the assessors’ subjective comprehension, and the perceived quality of early ideas for public transport services. The results show that there is no consistently direct effect between completeness and idea quality, which suggests that idea evaluations do not rely on informed decision-making (i.e., decisions based on the provided information). In fact, people who think they comprehend an idea also perceive its quality more higher than people who do not comprehend it. An increase in completeness acts as an aid for comprehension. These findings have important implications for idea management, and point to the significant effect of incomprehension during evaluation, something which needs to be taken into account when using crowdsourcing.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/caim.12262
Causal complexity has long been recognized as a ubiquitous feature underlying organizational phenomena, yet current theories and methodologies in management are for the most part not well-suited to its direct study. The introduction of the Qualitative Comparative Analysis (QCA) configurational approach has led to a reinvigoration of configurational theory that embraces causal complexity explicitly. We argue that the burgeoning research using QCA represents more than a novel methodology; it constitutes the emergence of a neo-configurational perspective to the study of management and organizations that enables a fine-grained conceptualization and empirical investigation of causal complexity through the logic of set theory. In this article, we identify four foundational elements that characterize this emerging neo-configurational perspective: (a) conceptualizing cases as set theoretic configurations, (b) calibrating cases’ memberships into sets, (c) viewing causality in terms of necessity and sufficiency relations between sets, and (d) conducting counterfactual analysis of unobserved configurations. We then present a comprehensive review of the use of QCA in management studies that aims to capture the evolution of the neo-configurational perspective among management scholars. We close with a discussion of a research agenda that can further this neo-configurational approach and thereby shift the attention of management research away from a focus on net effects and towards examining causal complexity.
The authors explore how firms can enhance consumer performance in online idea generation platforms. Most, if not all, online idea generation platforms offer all consumers identical tasks in which (1) participants are granted access to ideas from other participants and (2) ideas are classified into categories, but consumers can navigate freely across idea categories. The former is linked to stimulus ideas, and the latter may be viewed as a first step toward problem decomposition. The authors propose that the effects of both stimulus ideas and problem decomposition are moderated by consumers' domain-specific knowledge. In particular, concrete cues such as stimulus ideas are more beneficial to low-knowledge consumers, and high-knowledge consumers are better served with abstract cues such as the ones offered by problem decomposition. The authors' hypotheses are supported by an extensive empirical investigation involving more than 6,000 participants. The findings suggest that online idea generation platforms should use problem decomposition more explicitly and that firms should not immediately show other participants' ideas to high-knowledge consumers when they access the platform. In other words, online idea generation platforms should customize the task structure on the basis of each participant's domain-specific knowledge.
This article presents an overview of the Schwartz theory of basic human values. It discusses the nature of values and spells out the features that are common to all values and what distinguishes one value from another. The theory identifies ten basic personal values that are recognized across cultures and explains where they come from. At the heart of the theory is the idea that values form a circular structure that reflects the motivations each value expresses. This circular structure, that captures the conflicts and compatibility among the ten values is apparently culturally universal. The article elucidates the psychological principles that give rise to it. Next, it presents the two major methods developed to measure the basic values, the Schwartz Value Survey and the Portrait Values Questionnaire. Findings from 82 countries, based on these and other methods, provide evidence for the validity of the theory across cultures. The findings reveal substantial differences in the value priorities of individuals. Surprisingly, however, the average value priorities of most societal groups exhibit a similar hierarchical order whose existence the article explains. The last section of the article clarifies how values differ from other concepts used to explain behavior—attitudes, beliefs, norms, and traits.
Managers (N= 112) from a large international consumer goods manufacturer participated in a field experiment in which they learned and applied the Simplex process of creative thinking to solve real management problems. The interrelationships among six attitudinal and behavioral skill variables learned during the training were measured to improve understanding of how these variables contribute to the process. Predicted relationships were tested and a best-fit causal model was developed. Behavioral skill in generating quantity of options was the most important variable overall: it was directly associated with behavioral skill in both generating quality options and evaluating options. The key attitudinal skill and the second most important variable overall was the preference for avoiding premature evaluation of options (deferral of judgement). The other attitude measured the preference for active divergence, played only an indirect role in the process.
Typologies are an important way of organizing the complex cause-effect relationships that are key building blocks of the strategy and organization literatures. Here, I develop a novel theoretical perspective on causal core and periphery, which is based on how elements of a configuration are connected to outcomes. Using data on hightechnology firms, I empirically investigate configurations based on the Miles and Snow typology using fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA). My findings show how the theoretical perspective developed here allows for a detailed analysis of causal core, periphery, and asymmetry, shifting the focus to midrange theories of causal processes.
The goal of many blue-sky idea generation techniques is to generate a large quantity of ideas with the hope of obtaining a few outstanding, creative ideas that are worth pursuing. As such, a rapid means of screening the resulting sketches to select a manageable set of promising ideas is needed. This study explores a metric for evaluating large quantities of early-stage product sketches and tests the metric through an online service called Mechanical Turk. Reviewers’ subjective ratings of idea creativity had a strong correlation with ratings of idea novelty (r =0.80), but negligible correlation with idea usefulness (r =0.16). The clarity of the sketch positively influenced ratings of idea creativity. Additionally, the quantity of ideas generated by an individual participant had a strong correlation with that participant's overall creativity scores (r =0.82). The authors suggest a metric of three attributes to be used as a first pass in narrowing a large pool of product ideas to the most innovative: novel, useful (or valuable), and feasible (as determined by experts).
Although diffusion models have been successfully used to predict the adoption patterns of new products and technologies, little research has examined the psychological processes underlying the individual consumer's adoption decision. This research uses the knowledge transfer paradigm, studied often in the context of analogies, to demonstrate that both existing knowledge and innovation continuity are major factors influencing the consumer's adoption process. In two experiments, the authors demonstrate that the relationship between expertise and adoption is relatively complex. Specifically their findings indicate that, compared with novices, experts report higher comprehension, more net benefits, and therefore higher preferences for continuous innovations. However, for discontinuous innovations, experts' entrenched knowledge is related to lower comprehension, fewer perceived net benefits, and lower preferences compared with that of novices. Only when this entrenched knowledge is accompanied by relevant information from a supplementary knowledge base are experts able to understand and appreciate discontinuous innovations. These findings have implications for segmentation, media planning, and the creation of product/brand loyalty.
In developing CI capability, organisations need to move to a level of development in which strategic goals are communicated and deployed and where improvement activity is guided by a process of monitoring and measurement against these strategic objectives. Policy deployment of this kind is more prevalent in Japanese examples and in a handful of cases in Western firms. Implementing it poses significant challenges and requires a different and additional toolkit of enabling resources. This paper reports on the experience of policy deployment in Japan and in Western enterprises and explores some of the implementation issues raised.
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)
Three experiments were performed to test Smith, Ward, and Schumacher’s (1993) conformity hypothesis— that people’s ideas will
conform to examples they are shown in a creative generation task. Conformity was observed in all three experiments; participants
tended to incorporate critical features of experimenter-provided examples. However, examination of total output, elaborateness
of design, and the noncritical features did not confirm that the conformity effect constrained creative output in any of the
three experiments. Increasing the number of examples increased the conformity effect (Experiment 1). Examples that covaried
features that are naturally uncorrelated in the real world led to a greater subjective rating of creativity (Experiment 2).
A delay between presentation and test increased conformity (Experiment 3), just as models of inadvertent plagiarism would
predict. The explanatory power of theoretical accounts such as activation, retrieval blocking, structured imagination, and
category abstraction are evaluated.
In this paper, we address the pre-project phase of idea generation in the product innovation process, where the effective generation of new product ideas still remains an issue of high relevance for both management scholars and practitioners. We relate Nonaka and colleagues’ four knowledge creation modes of socialization, externalization, combination, and internalization to the novelty of product ideas generated. Taking a behavioral perspective on the four modes, we posit positive relationships between socialization as well as internalization and the novelty of product ideas, whereas we postulate negative relationships for externalization as well as combination. Using data from multiple respondents in 33 companies, our results confirm the proposed linkages.
The increasing popularity of open innovation approaches has led to the rise of various open innovation communities on the Internet which might contain several thousand user-generated ideas. However, a company’s absorptive capacity is limited regarding such an amount of ideas so that there is a strong need for mechanisms supporting the evaluation of these ideas. In this paper, we focus on the evaluation of such mechanisms for collective idea evaluation. Applying a multi-method approach, we compare six different configurations of a prediction market with a multi-criteria rating scale that performed best in previous research. We combine a web-based experiment with 448 participants, data from a participant survey, and an independent expert jury. Based on cognitive load theory, we explain why a multi-criteria rating scale outperforms prediction markets in terms of evaluation accuracy and evaluation satisfaction. This study contributes to theory building in the emerging field of collective intelligence.
Researchers and practitioners have an abiding interest in improving tools and methods to support idea generation. In studies that go beyond merely enumerating ideas, researchers typically select one or more of the following three constructs, which are often operationalized as the dependent variable( s): 1) idea quality, 2) idea novelty, which is sometimes referred to as rarity or unusualness, and 3) idea creativity. It has been chronically problematic to compare findings across studies because these evaluation constructs have been variously defined and the constructs have been sampled in different ways. For example, some researchers term an idea 'creative' if it is novel, while others consider an idea to be creative only if it is also applicable, effective, and implementable. This paper examines 90 studies on creativity and idea generation. Within the creativity studies considered here, the novelty of ideas was always measured, but in some cases the ideas had to also meet additional requirements to be considered creative. Some studies that examined idea quality also assessed novelty, while others measured different quality attributes, such as effectiveness and implementability, instead. This paper describes a method for evaluating ideas with regard to four dimensions - novelty, workability, relevance, and specificity - and has identified two measurable sub-dimensions for each of the four main dimensions. An action-research approach was used to develop ordinal scales anchored by clearly differentiable descriptions for each sub-dimension. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed high loadings among the sub-dimensions that comprise each dimension as well as high discriminant validity between dimensions. Application of this method resulted in high inter-rater reliability even when the method was applied by different raters to different problems and to ideas produced by both manual methods and group support systems (GSS).
Sensemaking involves turning circumstances into a situation that is comprehended explicitly in words and that serves as a springboard into action. In this paper we take the position that the concept of sensemaking fills important gaps in organizational theory. The seemingly transient nature of sensemaking belies its central role in the determination of human behavior, whether people are acting in formal organizations or elsewhere. Sensemaking is central because it is the primary site where meanings materialize that inform and constrain identity and action. The purpose of this paper is to take stock of the concept of sensemaking. We do so by pinpointing central features of sensemaking, some of which have been explicated but neglected, some of which have been assumed but not made explicit, some of which have changed in significance over time, and some of which have been missing all along or have gone awry. We sense joint enthusiasm to restate sensemaking in ways that make it more future oriented, more action oriented, more macro, more closely tied to organizing, meshed more boldly with identity, more visible, more behaviorally defined, less sedentary and backward looking, more infused with emotion and with issues of sensegiving and persuasion. These key enhancements provide a foundation upon which to build future studies that can strengthen the sensemaking perspective.
This study investigated the strategic "sensemaking" processes of scanning, interpretation, and action and how those activities are linked to organizational performance. Using path analyses on data from 156 hospitals, we tested the direct and indirect effects among these sensemaking processes and performance outcomes and developed a model of their relationships. In a more general sense, the research represents an attempt to provide insight not only into relationships between cognition and action, but also into the links between those fundamental processes and organizational performance outcomes.
A model called search for ideas in associative memory (SIAM) is proposed to account for various research findings in the area of group idea generation. The model assumes that idea generation is a repeated search for ideas in associative memory, which proceeds in 2 stages (knowledge activation and idea production), and is controlled through negative feedback loops and cognitive failures (trials in which no idea is generated). We show that (a) turn taking (production blocking) interferes with both stages of the process; (b) ideas suggested by others aid the activation of problem-relevant knowledge; and (c) cognitive failures are important determinants of brainstorming persistence, satisfaction, and enjoyment. Implications for group decision making and group recall are discussed.
See virtual issue: Managing the Front-End of Innovation
New product idea evaluation decisions made by individual development team members during their idea generation activities allow for and may also benefit from the use of both rational and intuitive approaches to decision-making. Unfortunately, there is a lack of empirical research on whether at all and, if yes, in which temporal sequence the two approaches should best be combined in making single idea evaluation decisions. To start filling this gap in the innovation and decision-making literatures, this research empirically explores which approach (combination) increases idea evaluation decision-making quality and speed. To this end, an experiment with product development practitioners was conducted, manipulating the use of either only intuition, only rationality, or combining intuition with rationality in both sequences in making a typical idea evaluation decision. The results show that only one combination, starting with intuitively analysing the ideas and then rationally considering the resulting intuition in making the final decision, leads to both the highest quality and speed. This finding has significant implications for theory and practice and provides ample opportunities for further research.
Despite the popularity and extensive use of engaging users in crowdvoting, very little research has been conducted into the appropriateness of users as substitutes for experts when judging ideas. Accordingly, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the appropriateness of using users as a proxy for professional experts during the initial idea screening of new product/service ideas. In other words, are users' assessments during idea screening conformant with professional experts' assessments and are they reliable as a proxy for experts during idea screening? In a comparative study, two different approaches to outsourcing the screening of wireless ideas to users are examined, including assessment by two different user panels: (1) technically skilled users and (2) technically naïve users. These two approaches were compared with the assessments made by professional experts. The results showed no conformance between users and experts when comparing their absolute scores. However, during a relative comparison (the ranking of ideas), both user panels were conformant with the professional experts. A test of the user panels' ability to select the same top ideas as the professional experts was successful, indicating good conformance between the user panels and the professional experts. This paper's contribution is knowledge of how conformant external users are compared with professional expert judges during idea screening. The results indicate that companies can employ users during the initial screening process using criteria assessment to select the best ideas for further elaboration, something that would significantly reduce the number of ideas. The paper suggests an alternative design to crowdvoting, whereby the users assess the relevant criteria.
Through a wide-ranging critical review of relevant publications, we explore and articulate what constitutes the sensemaking perspective in organization studies, as well as its range of applications and limitations. More specifically, we argue that sensemaking in organizations has been seen as consisting of specific episodes, is triggered by ambiguous events, occurs through specific processes, generates specific outcomes, and is influenced by several situational factors. Furthermore, we clarify the application range of the sensemaking perspective and identify, as well as account for, the types and aspects of organizational sensemaking that have been under-researched. We critically discuss the criticism that the sensemaking perspective has received so far and selectively expand on it. Finally, we identify the main limitations of the sensemaking perspective, which, if tackled, will advance it: the neglect of prospective sensemaking, the exclusive focus on disruptive episodes at the expense of more mundane forms of sensemaking implicated in routine activities, the ambiguous status of enactment, the conflation of first-order and second-order sensemaking, and the lack of proper attention to embodied sensemaking. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Idea evaluation has, in recent years, received more attention as a critical component of creative thought. One key influence on how people evaluate new ideas may be found in the standards, or attributes, people look for in appraising ideas. The intent of the present study was to examine the influence of different attributes on people's willingness to support new ideas. Initially undergraduates were asked to generate ideas that might be funded by a foundation. Based on this material, ideas displaying different attributes were identified. Another smaller sample of undergraduates were asked to evaluate ideas for funding by the foundation. It was found that people preferred ideas that were easy to understand, provided short-term benefits to many, and were consistent with prevailing social norms, while disregarding risky, time consuming, and original ideas. Original and risky ideas, however, were more likely to be preferred when evaluation criteria were not especially stringent and time pressure was high. The implications of these findings for understanding how people go about evaluating new ideas are discussed.
Idea evaluation is a critical aspect of creative thought. However, a number of errors might occur in the evaluation of new ideas. One error commonly observed is the tendency to underestimate the originality of truly novel ideas. In the present study, an attempt was made to assess whether analysis of the process leading to the idea generation and analysis of product originality would act to offset underestimation error in the evaluation of highly original new ideas. Accordingly, 181 undergraduates were asked to evaluate the originality of marketing campaigns being developed by six different teams where the level of idea originality was varied. Manipulations were induced to encourage active analysis of interactional processes and the originality of team products. It was found that active analysis of product originality and appraisal of interactional processes reduced errors in evaluating the originality of highly novel ideas. The implications of these findings for the evaluation of new ideas are discussed.
The aim of the article is to achieve a better understanding of idea screening selection based on intuition in relation to formal specific criteria.
Four experienced experts used two approaches to independently evaluate a set of 83 ideas. The first approach was “gut feeling”, whereby the experts rated each idea on the basis of their intuition. In the second approach the same ideas were rated instead using three established specific criteria (Originality, User Value, and Producibility). Regression analysis showed that the three criteria explained about 50 percent of the intuitive assessments. Furthermore, one of the experts thought out loud during his intuitive assessment, thus revealing further influencing.
This article contributes by establishing a statistical relationship between assessment based on intuition and assessment based on formal specific criteria. The article also offers two additional candidate criteria, and five tentative affectors, that could provide a further explanation of intuitive assessment.. The conclusion reached in the study is that intuition can be used because it is less resource-dependent than criteria-based assessment; however, there must also be some emphasis on validating the assessor’s domain of expertise, and designing the instructions, if the assessment is to have an incremental or radical twist.
Managers aiming to utilise the potential of involving ordinary users in ideation for innovation receive very little guidance from the existing literature with regard to how to do so in a satisfactory way. This paper aims to fill this knowledge gap by contributing to a better understanding of how users contribute to the ideation process of technology-based services, as well as how users may satisfactorily be managed within it. This is accomplished by identifying and investigating different ideation patterns and their effects on the created ideas' characteristics in the context of mobile telephony services. The current paper is based on a quasi-experimental study lasting 12 days and involving 56 ordinary users and 12 professionals as idea creators. Three different groups of users and one reference group of professionals were used. The paper inductively identifies four different ideation patterns leading to different types of ideas with regard to their innovativeness (incremental/radical). These are further related to the existing literature. The paper concludes with the managerial implications concerning how to manage user involvement for ideation to obtain either more incremental or more radical ideas.
With the increasing popularity of organizational sensemaking in the literature, sensemaking capability of firms attracts many researchers and practitioners from different fields. Nevertheless, sensemaking capability is rarely addressed in the new product development (NPD) project teams in the technology and innovation management literature. Specifically, we know little about what team sensemaking capability is, its ingredients and benefits, and how it works in NPD projects (e.g., its antecedents and consequences). By investigating 92 NPD project teams, we found that (1) team sensemaking capability, which is composed of internal and external communication, information gathering, information classification, building shared mental models, and taking experimental actions, has a positive impact on the information implementation and speed-to-market; (2) information implementation and speed-to-market mediate the relationship between team sensemaking capability and new product success; and (3) team sensemaking capability mediates the relationship between team processes and information implementation and partially mediates the relationship between team processes and speed-to-market.We also found that team autonomy, interpersonal trust among team members, and open-mindedness of team members positively influence the development of team sensemaking capability. Theoretical and managerial implications of the study findings are discussed.
This paper investigates the gate screening of ideas in engineering design, by examination of the validity of employee voting schemes and biases associated with such voting. After conducting an employee-driven innovation project at a major producer of disposable medical equipment, 99 ideas had to be screened for further development. Inspired by the concept of ‘wisdom of the crowd’, all ideas were individually rated by a broad selection of employees, and the ratings were used to investigate two biases in employee voting: visual complexity and endowment effect/ownership of ideas. The visual complexity bias was found to be a predictor for selection, but experienced employees were less affected by the bias. The ownership bias was potent in that every employee proved to be more likely to select his or her own ideas over other ideas, but this effect disappeared when aggregating across the crowd of employees. Furthermore, this study compared the employee selection with the preference of a small team of executives, showing that the employee voting significantly correlates with the preferences of the executives: overall, in the top 12 selected ideas and in the choice of idea categories. This match increases when including only the ratings of the most experienced employees.
C-K theory is a unified Design theory and was first introduced in 2003 (Hatchuel and Weil 2003). The name “C-K theory” reflects the assumption that Design can be modelled as the interplay between two interdependent spaces with different structures and logics: the space of concepts (C) and the space of knowledge (K). Both pragmatic views of Design
and existing Design theories define Design as a dynamic mapping process between required functions and selected structures.
However, dynamic mapping is not sufficient to describe the generation of new objects and new knowledge which are distinctive features of Design. We show that C-K theory captures such generation and offers a rigorous definition
of Design. This is illustrated with an example: the design of Magnesium-CO2 engines for Mars explorations. Using C-K theory we also discuss Braha and Reich’s topological structures for design modelling
(Braha and Reich 2003). We interpret this approach as special assumptions about the stability of objects in space K. Combining C-K theory and Braha
and Reich’s models opens new areas for research about knowledge structures in Design theories. These findings confirm the analytical and interpretative power of C-K theory.
(McGrath and Akiyama 1996) approach for managing projects in the NPD portion of the innovation process. Attention is increasingly being focused on the front-end activities that precede this formal and structured process in order to increase the value, amount, and success probability of high-profit concepts entering product development and commercialization. The purpose of this chapter is to provide the reader with the most effective methods, tools, and techniques for managing the FFE.3 The chapter begins with a brief discussion of the literature and the rationale for developing the new concept development (NCD) model. The next section describes the NCD model. The remaining sections provide a description of the most effective meth- ods, tools, and techniques to be used in each part of the NCD model.
The Creative Product Analysis Matrix was evaluated and refined by asking 133 undergraduate students to apply the questionnaire items in three areas (novelty, resolution, elaboration/synthesis) to two T-shirts, only one of predetermined creative design. Results indicated the instrument reliably assessed overall perceptions of the product. (DB)
The literature of brainstroming procedures has been examined in order to obtain guidlines for managers in idea-deficient situations. Various techniques and procedures have developed and are often incorporated into larger systems of managerial problem-solving. There seem two main reasons for utilizing the processes. The first is as an aid to creativity. The second is as an effective means of amassing ideas. These underlying principles have not been satisfactorily validated in the literature, but use of the technique for the latter, variety generating purpose, may be easier to justify than use as a creativity spurring device. It is suggested that further research is needed into expectations of practitioners and clients of brainstorming sessions.
Lead users have long been acknowledged as important contributors to the market success of innovative products and services. The ability of lead users to be such effective innovators has been ascribed to a combination of adequate technological expertise and superior knowledge of the user domain so-called use experience. Drawing on the apparent success of lead users in innovation, many companies are now attempting to involve other types of users, namely, ordinary users, for ideation at the fuzzy front end (FFE) of new product and service development. However, ordinary users do not usually possess the technological knowledge of lead users, and the existing literature provides little guidance on how to manage such user involvement or its expected contributions. The purpose of the present study is, therefore, to contribute to scholarly knowledge regarding the benefits and management of user involvement during the ideation phase of innovation in technology-based services. More specifically, the study investigates the contribution made in this respect by “ordinary” users, as opposed to professional developers. The research questions that are addressed are as follows: (1) What contributions do ordinary users make when involved in the FFE for ideation of new technology-based services; and (2) how is the contribution of the users affected by their knowledge of the underlying technology? The study addresses these questions through a literature review and conceptual analysis of the involvement of users in innovation in mobile telephony, followed by an empirical study using a quasi-experimental design in which the independent variable is the users' technological knowledge of the underlying mobile telephone system and the dependent variable is the quality of the created idea-proposals from an innovation perspective. Various scenarios involving guided users, pioneering users, and professionals are investigated. The study finds that the users' knowledge of the underlying technology has an effect on their propensity to contribute with incremental or radical new ideas. The ideas from guided users tend to be more incremental whereas the pioneering users' ideas are more radical. Contrary to the users in the guided user scenarios, the users in the pioneering user scenarios have a propensity to produce ideas that challenge the prevailing dominant logic of the company; these ideas can be used to assist the company to think in new trajectories. The paper proposes that ordinary users should not be expected to contribute ideas that can be directly put into the new product development process; rather, ordinary user involvement should be regarded as a process whereby a company learns about users' needs and is inspired to innovate. The paper concludes that user involvement can actually be a stimulus for review of a company's business strategy.
The trend in recent consumer research has been to emphasize the similarities between analogy and categorization. In this investigation, we merge the literature on analogy, categorization, and structure mapping theory to reach a better understanding of their differences. In 3 experiments, we compare consumers’ responses to analogy and categorization cues and find that analogy places much greater constraints on knowledge transfer than categorization by focusing consumers on relational similarities. Illustrating this, the analogy group in Study 1 was just as likely as the categorization group to generate relational inferences, but much less likely to generate attribute inferences. Likewise, the results of Study 2 indicate that the analogy group restricted their processing of features lying outside the common relational system, leading to inferior recall relative to the categorization group. Building on these findings, Study 3 demonstrates that, under certain circumstances, analogy and categorization work together syn-ergistically to enhance consumer memory.
Human reasoning is accompanied by metacognitive experiences, most notably the ease or difficulty of recall and thought generation and the fluency with which new information can be processed. These experiences are informative in their own right. They can serve as a basis of judgment in addition to, or at the expense of, declarative information and can qualify the conclusions drawn from recalled content. What exactly people conclude from a given metacognitive experience depends on the naive theory of mental processes they bring to bear, rendering the outcomes highly variable. The obtained judgments cannot be predicted on the basis of accessible declarative information alone; we cannot understand human judgment without taking into account the interplay of declarative and experiential information.
Although there is increasing acknowledgement that consumers can contribute useful ideas during the development of innovative services, there has been little empirical examination of how such users can best be managed in order to contribute their ideas to the ‘fuzzy front end’ of new service development. The present study examines the relationship between the nature of user-created ideas regarding new technology-based services and the characteristics of the users supplying the ideas. In particular, the study investigates whether users' ideas become more incremental or more radical depending on the users' awareness of technological restrictions and their utilization of use experience. The results show that idea creators with high use experience who are unaware of any technological restrictions tend to produce service ideas that are more radical in nature, whereas idea creators with high use experience who are aware of technological restrictions tend to produce service ideas that are more incremental in nature. The study provides empirical support that, in order to provide innovative ideas, ordinary users involved in ideation must both have a contextual use experience and not be restricted in their ideation by ‘too much’ technology information and restrictions on potential feasibility.
Generating ideas for new products used to be the exclusive domain of marketers, engineers, and/or designers. Users have only recently been recognized as an alternative source of new product ideas. Whereas some have attributed great potential to outsourcing idea generation to the “crowd” of users (“crowdsourcing”), others have clearly been more skeptical. The authors join this debate by presenting a real-world comparison of ideas actually generated by a firm's professionals with those generated by users in the course of an idea generation contest. Both professionals and users provided ideas to solve an effective and relevant problem in the consumer goods market for baby products. Executives from the underlying company evaluated all ideas (blind to their source) in terms of key quality dimensions including novelty, customer benefit, and feasibility. The study reveals that the crowdsourcing process generated user ideas that score significantly higher in terms of novelty and customer benefit, and somewhat lower in terms of feasibility. However, the average values for feasibility—in sharp contrast to novelty and customer benefit—tended to be relatively high overall, meaning that feasibility did not constitute a narrow bottleneck in this study. Even more interestingly, it is found that user ideas are placed more frequently than expected among the very best in terms of novelty and customer benefit. These findings, which are quite counterintuitive from the perspective of classic new product development (NPD) literature, suggest that, at least under certain conditions, crowdsourcing might constitute a promising method to gather user ideas that can complement those of a firm's professionals at the idea generation stage in NPD.
In order to reduce the risks of failure usually associated with NPD, leading companies such as 3M, HILTI, or Johnson&Johnson are increasingly working with so-called Lead Users. Their identification and involvement is supported by the Lead User method – a multi stage approach aiming to generate innovative new product concepts and to enhance the effectiveness of cross-functional innovation teams. While the Lead User method is frequently cited in the literature, yet, there are only limited attempts to comprehensively discuss how this approach is embedded in theories and empirical findings of innovation and marketing research. Therefore the Lead User method is in the focus of the present paper, both with respect to its theoretical foundation and its implementation into the innovation management system. First, empirical research on user innovations is reviewed to clarify the theoretical foundation of the Lead User method. Second the attention is drawn to the Lead User practice by discussing the various process steps of this specific approach on the basis of two applications of the method. Based on this discussion, we outline open questions related with the practical implementation of the Lead User method in order to start an agenda for future research.
Contrary to expectations, a study of creativity enhancing software showed that user creativity declined when using the software on an analysis task. Software increased the number of alternatives, but independent judges determined that these were less original or inventive than those produced without the software. These findings were consistent for both ‘highly creative’ and ‘less creative’ groups. Computer technology is an added variable that can interact to inhibit creativity in a moderately complex case analysis task. Creativity inducing software appears to need further development before it can contribute meaningfully to improving decision support systems.
Effective strategic planning demands that organizations develop an understanding of the forces shaping the situation by engaging the collective efforts and interpretive capabilities of various representatives of the organization. This study investigates the mechanisms by which such an understanding develops and, subsequently, shapes marketing strategy. Specifically, organizations are examined as sensemaking units stimulated by perceived environmental turbulence, cultural open-mindedness, and team functional diversity. These factors are modeled as determinants of an organization's sensemaking capability, which is comprised of communicative, interpretive, and analytical dimensions. This study argues that a developed sensemaking capability increases the potential range of strategic responses and, ultimately, enhances customer-based performance. The results from a sample of wholesale distributors suggest that organizations that maintain greater internal variety are better able to sense and respond to the environment.
Organisations, from all sectors, are facing a continual need to develop sustainable creativity and innovation as a result of increasingly rapid market, technology and people-based change. The aim of this paper is to briefly critique both knowledge creation (KC) and idea generation as key elements of creativity and innovation. The resultant objectives include the possible use of critically reflexive total quality management constructs as key enablers in this area. Furthermore, the determination of research directions and the enhancement of organisational approaches to creativity and innovation in the area of KC and idea generation.The concepts of distributed cognition and social constructionism are used to develop a taxonomy of KC that draws from different sources and philosophies. Critical total quality management (TQM) constructs and methods are used to illustrate how these forms of KC can be achieved in practice. It is contended that the idea generation literature and practice must address the underlying sources of KC before methods and techniques are devised.
For more than 20 years, researchers have investigated the effects of cognitive conflict techniques on the decision making performance of groups and individuals. Past research on two techniques, devil′s advocacy and dialectical inquiry, has shown that both techniques improve group performance over nonconflictual, expert-based approaches. More recently, researchers have begun to investigate how advanced decision and communication technologies can be used to enhance group processing and outcomes. In this paper, we extend both streams of research by reporting the results of a laboratory experiment on the effects devil′s advocacy and dialectical inquiry within face-to-face and computer-mediated groups. The results suggest that groups given the devil′s advocacy treatment developed and considered more alternative solutions to a case problem and selected a higher quality recommendation than those in the dialectical inquiry and expert-based treatments. Computer-mediated groups developed and considered more solution alternatives but required more voting rounds to reach agreement than did face-to-face groups. Computer-mediated groups were more satisfied with the process than face-to-face groups; no differences were found in satisfaction with decision outcome. The implications of the results for future research and practice are discussed.
Organizations rely heavily on applications developed by end users, yet lack of experience and training may compromise the ability of end users to make objective judgments about the quality of their applications. This study investigated the ability of end users to assess the quality of applications they develop. The results confirm that there are differences between the system quality assessments of end user developers and independent expert assessors. In particular, the results of this study suggest that end users with little experience may erroneously consider the applications they develop to be of high quality. Some implications of these results are discussed.
The death of 13 men in the Mann Gulch fire disaster, made famous in Norman Maclean's Young Men and Fire, is analyzed as the interactive disintegration of role structure and sensemaking in a minimal organization. Four potential sources of resilience that make groups less vulnerable to disruptions of sensemaking are proposed to forestall disintegration, including improvisation, virtual role systems, the attitude of wisdom, and norms of respectful interaction. The analysis is then embedded in the organizational literature to show that we need to reexamine our thinking about temporary systems, structuration, nondisclosive intimacy, intergroup dynamics, and team building.