Universität zu Köln

Fuchs, Christoph, Sting, Fabian J., Schlickel, Maik and Alexy, Oliver (2019). THE IDEATOR'S BIAS: HOW IDENTITY-INDUCED SELF-EFFICACY DRIVES OVERESTIMATION IN EMPLOYEE-DRIVEN PROCESS INNOVATION. Acad. Manage. J., 62 (5). S. 1498 - 1523. BRIARCLIFF MANOR: ACAD MANAGEMENT. ISSN 1948-0989

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Abstract

Grasping the true value of ideas is essential for corporate innovation success. When it comes to forecasting the value of one's own innovation ideas, however, people may err systematically. In this paper, we shed light on this ideator's bias, and examine when and why certain ideas are more prone to biased evaluations. Specifically, we argue that biased idea evaluations depend on the self-efficacy that ideators may derive from their specific role and social identity in the firm when generating a specific idea. We test our theoretical predictions of such a situation-specific perspective on overconfidence by using a corporate dataset on process innovations and their valuations. Furthermore, we triangulate our predicted mechanism and rule out alternative explanations through a series of additional interviews and four scenario-based experiments. Consistent with our situation-specific, identity-based account, we find that ideas from employees at a higher (vs. lower) organizational level, and from employees generating ideas in groups (vs. individually) are more prone to an ideator's bias. In doing so, our study helps explain when the ideator's bias prevails in a real-life organizational context, raises caution about some current proxies to identify high-potential ideas, and provides fresh insights to established theories around overconfidence and self-efficacy.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Fuchs, Christoph UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Sting, Fabian J. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Schlickel, Maik UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Alexy, Oliver UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-132248
DOI:	10.5465/amj.2017.0438
Journal or Publication Title:	Acad. Manage. J.
Volume:	62
Number:	5
Page Range:	S. 1498 - 1523
Date:	2019
Publisher:	ACAD MANAGEMENT
Place of Publication:	BRIARCLIFF MANOR
ISSN:	1948-0989
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language SAMPLE SELECTION BIAS; SOCIAL IDENTITY; CEO OVERCONFIDENCE; MARKET EXPERIENCE; SUCCESS; MODEL; WORK; CATEGORIZATION; ORGANIZATIONS; DETERMINANTS Multiple languages Business; Management Multiple languages
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/13224