Evaluation and selection of creative ideas in organizations

Abstract

Creativity scholars suggest that innovation involves idea generation, idea evaluation and selection, and finally, idea implementation. Yet, until recently, creativity research has mostly focused on idea generation. While work on idea generation has provided influential insights, it paints an incomplete picture of innovation in organizations. This is because only a small subset of the generated ideas ever reach the implementation stage, and numerous types of biases can hinder the identification of the best ideas. The purpose of this symposium is to discuss new theory and research on the evaluation and selection of creative ideas in organizations. The papers in this symposium highlight different biases in the evaluation process and how they could be mitigated. The compound of the papers provides a comprehensive view of the evaluation and selection of creative ideas at multiple levels of analysis (i.e., individual, dyadic, group), with a variety of methods (i.e., grounded theory, laboratory experiments, archival study), and across a range of contexts (e.g., internal idea selection panels, leader-member creative collaborations, and crowdfunding platforms). How Preference Diversity Amplifies Uncertainty and Reduces Group Preference for Novel Ideas Presenter: Wenxin Xie; U. College London Presenter: Sarah Harvey; UCL School of Management Presenter: Haoyue Zhang; Washington U. in St. Louis, Olin Business School Presenter: Poornika Anantha Ramakrishnan; Rotterdam School of Mgmt Presenter: William Bottom; Washington U. in St. Louis Expand Your Scope to Engage the Tension: How Leaders Overcome a Bias against Novelty Presenter: Jennifer Mueller; U. of San Diego Presenter: Yidan Yin; U. of California, San Diego Presenter: Mathias Simmons; U.S. Army Research Institute for the Behavioral and Social Sciences Evil Genius? How Unethical Pro-Organizational Behavior Impacts Creativity Recognition Presenter: Qing Gong; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Jiani Zhu; Georgia Institute of Technology Presenter: Christina Shalley; Georgia Institute of Technology Stereotyped as a Creative: Cues of Unconventionality Bias Idea Evaluation Presenter: Jack Anthony Goncalo; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Presenter: Ozias Moore; Lehigh U. The Effect of Geographical Discrimination on Investment Decisions Presenter: Xingye Liang; Vrije U. Amsterdam Presenter: Markus Baer; Washington U. in St. Louis Presenter: Jung Hyun Lee; Washington U. in St. Louis, Olin Business School