The impact of individual motivations on idea submission and future motivation to participate in an organization's virtual idea campaign

We used time-lagged survey data to investigate the effects of various types of motivation on idea submission and future motivation to participate in a virtual idea campaign (VIC). We also used qualitative data to illuminate context and enrich explanations. Applying forms of motivation from self-determination theory—intrinsic motivation and external motivation—and the additional composite form of identified-prosocial motivation, our study offers insight into their effects on idea submission and future motivation to participate in idea campaigns. We found that intrinsic motivation led to idea submission and future motivation to participate, while external motivation negatively related to idea submission. Identified-prosocial motivation positively related to participants' motivation to participate in future idea campaigns, but surprisingly, its interaction with intrinsic motivation did not lead to idea submission. We provide managers and innovation researchers with useful lessons for the effective management of idea campaigns in organizations, and our results highlight the value of autonomous forms of motivation, especially intrinsic motivation

BENEFITS OF AMBIGUITY IN NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

In this paper we challenge the traditional notion of ambiguity as an undesirable element in New Product Development (NPD) and explore how companies sometimes sustain or even increase ambiguity during their NPD projects. Based on qualitative analysis of case data from four NPD projects in the medical-device industry, we present a model by which this process can be better understood. We identify four ways that NPD projects can benefit from temporarily sustaining ambiguity: retaining fallback options, saving costs, saving time, and retaining ideas.New product development, ambiguity, qualitative research

Post-failure success: sensemaking in problem representation reformulation

Failure is an inevitable feature of innovation, and management research promulgates the importance of learning from it. Key to excelling at an innovation‐based strategy is understanding the processes that can turn failures into successes. However, post‐failure success remains elusive. Although failure signals that the innovation journey is off course, shifting trajectory is difficult, because it may require revising assumptions and reformulating the project’s problem representation. Using comparative case studies, this study set out to understand how problem representations are reformulated. Employing case method and comparing data versus theory iteratively, the important role of sensemaking and of leadership behaviors in driving post‐failure success became salient. Findings show that problem representations post‐failure require a process of problem formulation characterized by sensemaking and that innovative solutions are enabled by the reformulation of problem representations that spring from prospective sensemaking. Furthermore, this article identifies leadership change behavior as the linchpin driving a problem formulation process characterized by prospective sensemaking that catalyzes innovative solutions and explains why some projects thrive post‐failure and others do not. This article provides empirical support to the theoretical work of the literature on problem formulation, while extending the learning‐from‐failure literature by emphasizing and demonstrating the process driving post‐failure success. The major implication of our study is that different leadership behaviors may foster different types of sensemaking (retrospective or prospective), and that, in turn, the type of sensemaking matters for how a problem is reformulated. Ultimately, this article concludes that in the context of project failure, problem reformulation that springs from prospective sensemaking enables innovative solutions post‐failure