Creativity and innovation continue to attract significant attention from both scholars and practitioners, yet little is known about the processes by which ideas (i.e. potential innovations) are evaluated and selected following initial generation. This paper applies a behavioral decision research (BDR) perspective to explore boundary conditions for a traditional assumption of the creativity and innovation literatures, the notion that increases in creative idea generation will increase the likelihood of innovation. This analysis challenges the traditional assumption by proposing that the creativity component of novelty will be inversely related to subsequent idea evaluation and selection. Based on these new insights from BDR research, scholars and practitioners need to devote greater attention to understanding idea evaluation and selection processes to translate creative efforts to actual innovation in organizations.