High-quality Ideas Research Articles

The idea marketplace: Diversity, social capital, and innovation

AbstractFirms increasingly leverage idea markets, where participants (such as employees) generate, improve, and evaluate ideas on a collaborative digital platform. Different participants contribute differently to the ideation process, some generating high quality ideas while others initiating discussion threads and commenting on the ideas to further enhance the ideas’ quality. Such diverse contributions may be importantly influenced by the participants’ diverse social capital—resource access and status—in their pre-existing network. We theorize this relationship and further test our hypotheses by conducting two idea market studies, one involving only a firm’s employees (Study 1: closed innovation) and the other further incorporating non-employees (Study 2: open innovation). We show that the higher quality ideas are generated by the participants with greater resource access, whereas continued engagement, including contributing larger quantities of ideas, discussion threads, and comments, stems from those with higher status. These findings have important implications for ideator recruitment and idea market design.

Navigating Uncharted Waters: How Executives Originate High-Quality Ideas for Strategic Responses to Unprecedented Shocks

Navigating Uncharted Waters: How Executives Originate High-Quality Ideas for Strategic Responses to Unprecedented Shocks

The Factors Influencing the Idea Recognition of Open Innovation Platforms: Take LEGO Ideas as an Example

With the influx of users posting their ideas to Open Innovation Platforms (OIPs), there has been widespread interest in how companies screen high-quality ideas. Most of the existing literature on idea quality focuses on the adoption of ideas by companies, while ignoring the recognition among users. Based on the ideas posted by users of LEGO Ideas, this study first analyzes the influence of users’ social learning and social network on their innovation ability, and then further investigates the influence of idea authors’ innovation ability and idea content’s characteristics on idea recognition based on signal theory. The findings suggest that more challenging social learning as well as weighted indegree and betweenness centrality of social network positively affect users’ innovation ability and weighted outdegree of social network negatively affects users’ innovation ability. Meanwhile, idea authors’ innovation ability and the number of pictures, text length, richness, popularity, and emotional polarity of idea content positively affect idea recognition. Distinct from the existing literature, this paper focuses on idea recognition among users, delves into the influence of social learning and social network on users’ innovation ability, and integrates the study of factors influencing users’ innovation ability into the study of factors influencing idea recognition.

Where are your ideas going? Idea adoption in online user innovation communities

PurposeWith the proliferation of ideas submitted by users in firm-built online user innovation communities, community managers are faced with the problem of user idea overload. The purpose of this paper is to explore the influencing factors on the idea adoption to identify high quality ideas, and then propose a method to quickly filter high value ideas.Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected more than 110,000 data submitted by Xiaomi community users and analyzed the factors affecting idea adoption using a multinomial logistic regression model. In addition, the authors also used BP neural network to predict the idea adoption process.FindingsThe empirical results show that idea semantics, number of likes, number of comments, number of related posts, the existence of pictures and self-presentation have positive impact on idea adoption, while idea length and idea timeliness had negative impact on idea adoption. In addition, this paper calculates the idea evaluation value through the idea adoption process predicted by neural network and the mean value of idea term frequency inverse document frequency (TF-IDF).Originality/valueThis empirical study expands the theoretical perspective of idea adoption research by using dual-process theory and enriches the research methods in the field of idea adoption research through the multinomial logistic regression method. Based on our findings, firms can quickly identify valuable ideas and effectively alleviate the information overload problem of online user innovation communities.

Editorial: There Are Promises to Keep and Miles to Go Before I Leave…

Editorial: There Are Promises to Keep and Miles to Go Before I Leave…

Artificial Intelligence Systems: the Influence on Human Entrepreneurial Creativity

This article explores the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems on the generation of new venture ideas, answering a direct call from entrepreneurship scholars (Chalmers, MacKenzie, & Carter, 2021). A conceptual framework is built to unearth the underlying mechanisms, drawing on cognitive theories of creativity. The conceptual framework is tested experimentally with 90 participants. Findings show that the use of AI during new venture idea generation is a double-edged sword. Humans can enhance their cognitive flexibility, which leads to generate more high-quality ideas (number of creative, novel and useful ideas) at the expense of average novelty of ideas. Practical implications, academic contributions and future research opportunities are discussed.

How Information Contributed After an Idea Shapes New High-Quality Ideas in Online Ideation Contests

Findings on how prior high-quality ideas affect the quality of subsequent ideas in online ideation contests have been mixed. Some studies find that high-quality ideas lead to subsequent high-quality ideas, while others find the opposite. Based on computationally intensive exploratory research, utilizing theory on blending of mental spaces, we suggest that the effects of prior ideas on the generation of subsequent ideas depend on the alignment of (1) crowd participants’ subjective quality assessments of prior ideas and (2) subsequent problemrelated contributions made by the crowd. When a prior idea is assessed as high-quality, this motivates the crowd to emulate that idea. When this motivation is aligned with subsequent contributions that expand the mental space of the prior idea, a new high-quality idea can be created. In contrast, when a prior idea is assessed as low-quality, it motivates the crowd to redirect away from that idea. When this motivation is aligned with subsequent contributions that shift the mental space of the prior idea, a new high-quality idea can be created. The mixed findings in the literature can then be explained by a failure to consider non-idea information contributions made by the crowd.

Identifying high quality ideas in the online context: evidence from a meta-analysis

PurposeWith the rapid development of web-based ideation platforms, firms are increasingly reaching outside their boundaries to obtain ideas, which makes idea evaluation tricky and ineffective. Numerous studies have investigated the antecedents of idea quality, but few have focused on the fragmented and contradictory conclusions these studies have drawn. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to disentangle conflicting findings regarding factors affecting idea quality.Design/methodology/approachA total of 41 independent samples from 40 articles published between 2009 and 2020 were retrieved and encoded to conduct a meta-analysis. By using Comprehensive Meta-analysis 3.0 (CMA 3.0) software, the relationship between identified influencing factors and idea quality, and the moderating effects of potential variables were investigated.FindingsFactors affecting idea quality were summarized and divided into three categories: idea-related factors, ideator-related factors and platform-related factors. The results indicated that all proposed factors (idea length, supporting evidence, past success, past submissions, past comments, votes received and comments received) had significant positive effects on idea quality. Moreover, the measurement of idea quality and idea type was the causative factor for the inconsistent findings, whereas the moderating effect of platform type was not significant.Originality/valueThis study systematically synthesized the existing research on the factors influencing idea quality and helped to reconcile the mixed results. The findings serve to enrich current knowledge of idea evaluation in the online context, which could have important implications for both scholars and practitioners.

How experts screen ideas: The complex interplay of intuition, analysis and sensemaking

AbstractOrganizations use idea screening to select which ideas will be developed into innovation projects. Extant research has revealed that, during idea screening, expert evaluators use intuition to make rapid holistic decisions about idea quality, analyze ideas in detail to determine their value and employ sensemaking to understand and elaborate on ideas. However, much of this takes place in the minds of the evaluators, which limits our understanding of how experts identify good ideas. This study addresses the issue by mapping the activities that expert evaluators use to screen ideas and by examining how these activities are used to identify high quality ideas. To study this, 204 idea screening cases were collected, using the think aloud method on two samples of experts. The data was analyzed using grounded theory techniques to outline the range of idea screening activities that expert evaluators use and then complemented with fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to understand how these activities are combined together to make judgments of idea quality. The findings break down intuition, analysis, and sensemaking into seven key activities that experts use when screening ideas and detail their dimensions on the micro‐level. The fsQCA further shows that experts combine these activities into distinct patterns in order to find high quality ideas, where sensemaking plays a crucial role. This demonstrates that finding high quality ideas often requires effortful interpretation, while also generating opportunities to develop ideas further. These findings add depth to our understanding of how evaluators think when screening ideas, suggesting that expert evaluators can be used for both the screening and development of ideas during the idea screening stage. Integrating idea development into screening can potentially lead to the more effective use of resources, while saving time at the front‐end of innovation.

Russian Political and Legal Thought on the Culture of State Building

The paper shows how Russian thinkers understand culture and its unifying role in society and the state. The imperfection inherent in Russian society determined the movement of thought from existing to what is due. In a complex, long-term process of searching for what is due, Russian thinkers have developed high-quality ideas aimed at an ideal understanding, a just structure and action of the state. Justification of the ideal structure of state life was associated with the comprehension of the meaning of life, the national idea, the essence of power, the state. It was argued that without their understanding, the state cannot determine not only the highest goal, but also specific historical tasks. It cannot develop just and effective state decrees. Due to the modern westernization process in Russia, the priority of material culture focused on material enrichment, success, and prestige in society was established at the official level. This led to the loss of culture’s true role and national characteristics. By proclaiming a quantitative criterion, modern culture has separated people, ceased to fulfill a unifying mission in society, the state, and to serve the quality of national life. Repressed at the official level, Russian culture is preserved in various spheres of the national consciousness and the unconscious. The task of reviving, preserving and exalting Russia requires a real restructuring of the Russian state in accordance with the principles of its own political and legal culture. The search for the solution to this problem encourages an in-depth analysis, second thought and new interpretation of the established understanding and role of culture in the structure and life of a state-organized society developed by Russian thinkers.

Markets for Ideas: Prize Structure, Entry Limits, and the Design of Ideation Contests

Contests are a popular mechanism for the procurement of innovation. In marketing, design, and other creative industries, firms use freelance marketplaces to organize contests and obtain high-quality ideas for ads, new products, and even business strategies from participants. A central question faced by contest sponsors is how to appropriately structure prizes and entry regulations. I develop an empirical model of idea generation (ideation) contests and investigate the impact of the number of prizes, prize amount, and submission limit on participation and quality outcomes using data from a popular marketing ideation platform. The model explains participant submission decisions, jury ratings, and sponsor rankings of winning submissions. Counterfactuals reveal the impact of design parameters on outcomes and provide guidance for the optimal design of ideation contests and platforms.

When does crowdsourcing benefit firm stock market performance?

Crowdsourcing is a particular form of open innovation (OI) that aims to boost idea-generation in innovation processes. The underlying rationale is that the collective intelligence of a large number of contributors outside the firm’s boundaries increases the likelihood of achieving ‘extreme outcomes’, i.e., high quality ideas with exceptional business potential. Due to the idiosyncrasies that differentiate crowdsourcing from other forms of OI, the findings from prior research on the performance implications of OI cannot be directly extended to crowdsourcing. Similarly, the findings on the effect of internal R&D on firm performance cannot be directly applied to crowdsourcing due to the greater uncertainty in dealing with a crowd of unknown individuals outside the organization whose ideas have to be evaluated and ultimately processed internally. Thus, while crowdsourcing research has recently burgeoned, it is ambiguous as to whether and when crowdsourcing is beneficial for firms. In fact, the overall effect of crowdsourcing on a firm’s future profits has not been thoroughly investigated. To fill this gap, we conducted an event study analyzing stock market reactions to crowdsourcing announcements, a forward-looking market-based measure able to isolate the effect of crowdsourcing on a firm’s future profits, which we refer to as firm stock market performance. Drawing on the resource-based view, we argue that an external crowd can become a valuable resource if the firm is able to extract value from it. Our findings show that two key contingency factors, i.e., brand value and investment opportunities, determine the boundary conditions that enable firms to extract value from the crowd, resulting in a positive stock market reaction to the announcement of a crowdsourcing campaign. In addition to advancing scholarly knowledge on crowdsourcing, our results provide practitioners with relevant indications for profitable crowdsourcing campaigns.

Conversational Peers and Idea Generation: Evidence from a Field Experiment

High quality ideas and the individuals who generate them are critical to the success of organizations. In this article, we take a micro-network perspective on idea generation and incorporate personality theory into a multi-level model of information acquisition and idea generation. We posit that innovator and peer personality are critical factors conditioning who will generate high-quality ideas, and that our proposed mechanisms have implications at both individual and team levels. Using data from a randomized field experiment embedded in a startup bootcamp for early-stage entrepreneurs, our findings show that innovators who are more open to experience do generate better ideas, but only when they converse with extroverted peers. Further, we find that teams populated with such openness-extroversion dyads perform substantially better--having both a higher pool of novel information and better recombinative capability with the team. We discuss implications for future research on the individual and social determinants of innovation.

Thank You to the ABT Production Team and Reviewers

The year 2018 was very productive for The American Biology Teacher . We experienced a healthy increase in the number of article submissions over the previous year, resulting in even more high-quality ideas, teaching suggestions, and updates reaching our readers through the nine issues of our 80th volume. What our readers might not immediately recognize is how many individuals contribute directly and indirectly to producing the journal. Through this annual “thank you” column, I am pleased to recognize many of those whose work makes the journal possible. First, we should start by acknowledging the authors, without whom there would simply be no journal. I suspect that most readers realize that no one is paid for their contributions to ABT . However, we hope that all our authors recognize that they impact biology teaching and learning in a multitude of ways they may never directly appreciate. As editor, I appreciate the good will exhibited by authors as their work proceeds through the sometimes lengthy review and revision process and then wait many months to see their work in print. The ABT publications team is second to none and, as such, they deserve my sincere appreciation. On the front line we have reviewing editors Bill Heybourn, Kevin Bonney, Emily Weigel, and Lance Forshee, who select peer reviewers and write review summaries for each article submitted. Our …

Markets for Ideas: Prize Structure, Entry Limits, and the Design of Ideation Contests

Contests are a popular mechanism for the procurement of innovation. In marketing, design, and other creative industries, firms use freelance marketplaces to organize contests and obtain high-quality ideas for ads, new products, and even business strategies from participants. A central question faced by contest sponsors is how to appropriately structure prizes and entry regulations. I develop an empirical model of idea generation (ideation) contests and investigate the impact of the number of prizes, prize amount, and submission limit on participation and quality outcomes using data from a popular marketing ideation platform. The model explains participant submission decisions, jury ratings, and sponsor rankings of winning submissions. Counterfactuals reveal the impact of design parameters on outcomes and provide guidance for the optimal design of ideation contests and platforms.

The Combinator – a computer-based tool for creative idea generation based on a simulation approach

Idea generation is significant in design, but coming up with creative ideas is often challenging. This paper presents a computer-based tool, called the Combinator, for assisting designers to produce creative ideas. The tool is developed based on an approach simulating aspects of human cognition in achieving combinational creativity. It can generate combinational prompts in text and image forms through combining unrelated ideas. A case study has been conducted to evaluate the Combinator. The study results indicate that the Combinator, in its current formulation, has assisted the tool users involved in the case study in improving the fluency of idea generation, as well as increasing the originality, usefulness, and flexibility of the ideas generated. The results also indicate that the tool could benefit its users in generating high-novelty and high-quality ideas effectively. The Combinator is considered to be beneficial in expanding the design space, increasing better idea occurrence, improving design space exploration, and enhancing the design success rate.

Ranking Ideas for Diversity and Quality

When selecting ideas or trying to find inspiration, designers often must sift through hundreds or thousands of ideas. This paper provides an algorithm to rank design ideas such that the ranked list simultaneously maximizes the quality and diversity of recommended designs. To do so, we first define and compare two diversity measures using determinantal point processes (DPP) and additive submodular functions. We show that DPPs are more suitable for items expressed as text and that a greedy algorithm diversifies rankings with both theoretical guarantees and empirical performance on what is otherwise an NP-Hard problem. To produce such rankings, this paper contributes a novel way to extend quality and diversity metrics from sets to permutations of ranked lists. These rank metrics open up the use of multi-objective optimization to describe trade-offs between diversity and quality in ranked lists. We use such trade-off fronts to help designers select rankings using indifference curves. However, we also show that rankings on trade-off front share a number of top-ranked items; this means reviewing items (for a given depth like the top ten) from across the entire diversity-to-quality front incurs only a marginal increase in the number of designs considered. While the proposed techniques are general purpose enough to be used across domains, we demonstrate concrete performance on selecting items in an online design community (OpenIDEO), where our approach reduces the time required to review diverse, high-quality ideas from around 25 h to 90 min. This makes evaluation of crowd-generated ideas tractable for a single designer. Our code is publicly accessible for further research.

Online Crowdsourcing Campaigns: Bottom-Up versus Top-Down Process Model

ABSTRACTWhen a crowd’s motivations are not triggered, they may not necessarily commit their best efforts, even if they have the knowledge to answer an open call. Drawing on the incentive theory, we introduce a top-down process model for an online crowdsourcing campaign that addresses the crowd’s motivations. This model is in contrast to the traditional bottom-up process model, where the crowd self-selects an open call based on their knowledge. We adopt a longitudinal case study method and examine two online crowdsourcing campaigns that represent both models. The findings suggest that the campaign that follows the top-down model generated high-quality ideas, while the bottom-up case was considered a failure. We further enrich the top-down model by developing a four-stage guidance model that addresses the crowd’s differing motivations in each stage. This research contributes to the crowdsourcing literature and helps better attract the qualifying crowd, thereby leading to greater campaign success likelihood.

Interim Feedback in Tournaments for Ideas: Trading Off Participation for Quality

Performance feedback is ubiquitous in competitive settings where new products are developed. This paper introduces a fundamental tension between incentives and improvement in performance evaluation. Using a sample of four thousand commercial logo design tournaments, I show that feedback reduces participation but improves the quality of subsequent submissions, with an ambiguous effect on high-quality output. To evaluate this tradeoff, I develop a procedure to estimate agents’ effort costs and simulate counterfactuals under alternative feedback policies. The results suggest that feedback on net increases the number of high-quality ideas produced and may thus be desirable for a principal seeking innovation.

외향성·내향성 성격 차이가 그룹 아이디어 생산에 미치는 영향에 관한 연구의 재해석

Purpose This study re-analyzes Jung 2012`s data using the time interval based analysis to examine if the process of idea generation is in good currency throughout the ideation sessions. In this way, the relationship between extraversion-introversion personality trait and ideation performance in the context of computer-mediated idea generation can be better understood. Design/methodology/approach A factorial design was used, crossing personality differences (extraversion and introversion) with the degree of stimuli (0, 20, 40, and 80 high-quality ideas). Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight treatment conditions. The group simulator is used to measure individual level performance. The number of unique ideas generated by individuals and the exact time stamp when each idea was submitted were analyzed to compare performances. Findings The results show that introverts` performances significantly drops after about the middle stage of the ideation session, whereas extraverts do not seem to feel time constraints throughout the ideation session, resulting in superior divergent thinking, which is a major key to understand creative productivity in the problem-solving process. Since extraverts tend to yield a larger pool of ideas, another interpretation is that group composition with extraverts compared with introverts may create a logically larger group, which is important to improve the performance of idea generation group.