Emotional Structuring of Innovation

Abstract

We conducted a real-time field study of the initiation and evolution of a large corporation’s internal corporate venturing unit. Previous research argues that the explorative innovation activities conducted by such units are built in ways that benefit organizations to renew, regardless of whether those activities are induced by top managers or initiated from the bottom. In contrast, our research shows that emotions stemmed from such activities play a larger role in structuring innovative and venturing processes and in influencing organizational renewal, than expected. In detail, we find that the members of the venturing unit we studied, in their desire to maximize the experience of positive emotions and to minimize the experience of negative emotions, (a) discounted (maintained) activities that elicited negative (positive) emotions, (b) modified activities eliciting negative emotions, and (c) adopted (rejected) new activities that elicited positive (negative) emotions. However, the revision of the innovation and venturing activities undermined the performance of the venturing unit, and inhibited the renewal efforts of the parent corporation. Our research contributes to the emerging stream of research that explores the role of emotions in organizational innovation, internal corporate venturing, and organizational change by revealing how emotional dynamics can shape emerging structures that ultimately shape the success of innovation and venturing activities.