Idea championing as a missing link between idea generation and team innovation implementation : a situated emergence approach

Černe, Matej (author), Kaše, Robert (author), Škerlavaj, Miha (author)

We examine idea championing as a key intermediary process of the idea journey linking idea generation and idea implementation in teams. Building upon multilevel framework of emergence we theorize about how compositional and compilational emergence of idea generation along with idea championing behaviors translate team members’ creative ideas into team-level innovative solutions. We adopt a two-study research design including a two-wave two-source field study (309 employees nested into 92 teams with direct supervisors) and an experimental study (423 students nested into 79 teams) to test our conceptual model. The results of field study show that team innovation process featuring strong compilational (selected actor-maximum) idea generating followed by compilational idea championing leads to best team-level innovative solutions. Using a sociometric approach as a part of an experimental study, we further show that individuals exhibiting the strongest idea generating activity are also significantly more likely the ones engaging in most intense idea championing behavior. While having team members exhibiting such exceptional behaviors is relatively more effective in an unstructured team innovation setup, structured idea journey setups result in better team-level innovative solutions, when idea championing behaviors are more equally distributed among team members. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

• Language: English
• Keywords: human capital, knowledge transfer, innovations, creativity, idea championing, teams, multilevel emergence
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: EF - School of Economics and Business
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2024
• Number of pages: Str. 233-244
• Numbering: Vol. 42, iss. 2
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-143659
• UDC: 331.108
• ISSN on article: 0263-2373
• DOI: 10.1016/j.emj.2022.09.011
• COBISS.SI-ID: 124215555
• Publication date in RUL: 05.01.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European management journal
• Shortened title: Eur. manage. j.
• Publisher: Elsevier
• ISSN: 0263-2373
• COBISS.SI-ID: 25432320

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: človeški kapital, prenos znanja, inovacije, ustvarjalnost

Projects

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: P5-0410
• Name: Digitalizacija kot gonilo trajnostnega razvoja posameznika, organizacij in družbe

• Funder: ARRS - Slovenian Research Agency
• Project number: J5-2555
• Name: Oblikovanje organizacije v digitalni dobi