"A Little Less Conversation, a Little More Action, Please? Discussing Novel Ideas in the Front-End"
Dirk Deichmann · Academy of Management Proceedings · 2013
In this study, we analyze the antecedents of the involvement intensity of two people working on an idea; measured in how long they discuss an idea. Subsequently, we investigate whether idea discussion length contributes to the success of the employees’ new product ideas. Our findings reveal that mainly structural aspects of the tie such as joint friends and tie centrality predict idea discussion length. For tie attribute aspects such as departmental co-membership or similarity in seniority, we did not find significant effects. Long idea discussions had a positive effect on idea success but only when these discussions were held in the idea development phase and not in the succeeding idea refinement phase. When people talked at length about an idea in this late phase of an idea trajectory, it had even detrimental effects for the outcome of the idea. Together, the findings shed more light on temporal relationships, why and how they emerge and when they contribute to idea success.