Effects of team cognition and constraint on new product ideation

Abstract

Idea generation is a critical activity in new product development. This study investigates the effects of ideation team's cognitive depth (specialization) and breadth (diverse expertise) as well as goal constraint on the generation of new product ideas. Focusing on the determinants of new product idea development helps articulate the mechanisms to generate more useful and novel product ideas. The findings indicate that specialization and diverse expertise affect idea novelty directly, albeit differently. Goal constraint helps enhance the usefulness dimension of new product ideas, but has little effect on the newness dimension of the ideas. Finally, goal constraint helps harness the diverse expertise of the team toward a more useful idea.