Idea Selection in Idea Development Conversations: the Co-Evolution of Ideas and Networks
Riku Ruotsalainen · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2013
This study adds to the existing literature linking networks and innovations by investigating how interorganizational networks select which particular creative ideas will be implemented. Drawing on theories of dialogue and research on the cognitive and affective foundations of interpersonal relations, I develop a model of how individual reactions in innovation conversations constitute interpersonal relationships between conversing actors, aggregating into sets of directed networks. The empirical analysis of this paper is based on innovation conversations in a collaboration project between nine public health care organizations. First, the analysis shows how actors’ (positive support, negative influence, neutral persuasion, and neutral floor-giving) reactions towards each other’s ideas aggregate into idea-specific networks evolving over time. Then, I elaborate how network density, idea advocate centrality, and the evolution of the network over time conditioned idea selection. In the empirical context studied, ideas were selected for implementation when the idea-specific network was homogeneous, dense, and had the idea advocate as a most influential hub. This study provides a theoretical understanding how idea advocates can influence group affective states in social interaction, leading to the formation of a network supporting idea selection.