Organizational Learning and Search Track: Reading the Tea Leaves: The Intertwined Roles of Attention and Search in Innovation and Adaptation

Abstract

The relationship between managerial attention and firms’ innovation efforts is well-established in the extant literature. However, the relationship between attention and the search for and implementation of new innovations is complex. Despite the clear importance both scholastically and managerially of understanding how attention, search behaviors, and adaptation interrelate, our understanding of the mechanisms through which attention is translated or not translated into action is relatively under-developed. In this symposium, we present four recent studies that have started to unpack this relationship between managerial attention and organizational search and adaptation. The goal of this symposium is to spark interest in the broad cognitive underpinnings of technological adaptation, including how managerial attention translates into search and other innovation- related actions during periods of industry change. During such periods firms must rapidly adapt to a changing environment, and the misallocation of valuable resources, like attention, limits the ability to successfully search for new solutions and eventually adapt to the changing environment. Through this symposium, we will start to both unpack the factors and mechanisms that shape the attention-action relationship as well as deepen our understanding of another explanation as to why incumbent firms may struggle to respond to industry change. The Role of Managerial Attention in Shaping Responses to Industry Change Presenter: John Eklund; U. of Southern California Presenter: Manav Raj; New York U. Fighting the Fires: Online User Community Conflict, Creator Attention and User-Generated Innovations Presenter: Jay (Jinwon) Park; U. of California, Irvine Presenter: Seongbin Yoon; U. of California, Irvine Presenter: John Joseph; U. of California, Irvine Presenter: Brian Amir Ebrahimi; U. of California, Irvine Regulatory stringency and external R&D investment in the U.S. Electricity Industry Presenter: Nilanjana Dutt; Bocconi U. Presenter: Colleen Cunningham; London Business School Talking the Walk: Managerial Attention, Exploration, and Investor Valuation of New Technologies Presenter: Dylan Boynton; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Presenter: William Ocasio; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign