Designing idea generation protocols for consumers and firms
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- To jumpstart innovation and collect a diverse set of ideas for new product development, firms often organize events and activities exclusively dedicated to idea generation. For example, consumers partake in idea generation in online crowdsourced ideation contests and employees generate ideas in team meetings and during hackathons. How should marketers design these activities to maximize productivity? To answer this question, my dissertation examines how the structure of these ideation activities shape the cognitive mechanisms underlying idea generation and development. In my first essay, I investigate the efficacy of a frequently used ideation paradigm in consumer ideation contests, explicitly soliciting creative ideas, and uncover a creativity paradox— that encouraging creative ideas can backfire, leading to fewer novel ideas that firms can harvest. In my second essay, I examine the impact of virtual collaboration (i.e., videoconferencing) on the cognitive processes of idea generation and subsequent idea selection. Although videoconferencing closely mimics in-person conversation, I find that communication modality can meaningfully change new product development: virtual teams (vs. face-to-face teams) perform worse during idea generation but are better at identifying their best idea for further development. Finally, in my third essay, I explore when repeated practice can be leveraged to improve creative thinking. I find that while daily practice fosters creative problem-solving (i.e., convergent creativity), it does not facilitate, and may even undercut, ideation (i.e., divergent creativity). Taken together, these projects provide a deeper understanding of the psychological drivers of ideation and creativity as well as generate a rich set of tools for consumers and firms to increase creativity and fuel innovation.
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource. |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2019; ©2019 |
| Publication date | 2019; 2019 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Brucks, Melanie | |
|---|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Huang, Szu-chi | |
| Degree supervisor | Levav, Jonathan, 1975- | |
| Thesis advisor | Huang, Szu-chi | |
| Thesis advisor | Levav, Jonathan, 1975- | |
| Thesis advisor | Wheeler, S. Christian | |
| Degree committee member | Wheeler, S. Christian | |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Graduate School of Business. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Melanie Brucks. |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Graduate School of Business. |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2019. |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2019 by Melanie Brucks
- License
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial 3.0 Unported license (CC BY-NC).
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