The Creativity Bias: Investors Respond Negatively to Executives’ Creative Expression

Abstract

Creativity and innovation are often considered to be essential characteristics of effective organizations. However, recent experimental research suggests that individual-level creativity in the workplace is not always perceived positively because of the uncertainty inherent in creative ideas. Although this research has advanced our understanding of perceptions of individual creativity in organizations, less is known about whether this creativity bias holds in real world contexts and, if so, whether there are organizational consequences. In this paper, we examine the organizational implications of creative expression in Fortune 1000 firms as captured in executives’ discussions of their firms’ creativity in quarterly earning calls. We predict that due to the association between creativity and uncertainty, market reactions to executives’ expressions of creativity will be negative. We find that greater expression of creativity-related constructs is negatively related to stock market returns, but positively related to firm financial performance, suggesting the bias may not be rational. Our study has a number of theoretical implications for the study of leadership, creativity and firm performance as well as managerial implications.