Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus U., Netherlands
We investigate how previous success affects inter-idea times of serial idea generators engaged in creative initiative taking. For this purpose, we use a 12-year data set—from a maximum care hospital in Germany—that includes 5,206 ideas from 1,971 employees. Contrary to our initial hypothesis, which was based on social cognitive theory, we discover that success tends to increase inter-idea times. Our quantitative abductive research strategy reveals empirical patterns suggesting that a successful idea generator tries to justify their newly acquired identity as an innovator, postponing future initiative taking yet without raising idea performance (i.e., idea quality and originality). This dynamic poses a double jeopardy for organizations, since typically only a small fraction of the workforce contributes any ideas at all and since organizations benefit most from high-quality ideas. In support of our emerging identity account, we find that frontline employees and men (resp., leaders and women) are affected more (resp., less) by identity threats; the result is even longer inter-idea times for these innovators in the former categories. Our study helps elucidate the factors that supersede motivational aspects related to success, and we discuss several important implications for organizational innovation processes.
