In the environment where companies seek to maximize their innovative ability by investing significant resources in the generation of creative ideas, effective idea evaluation becomes increasingly important. To maximize potential benefits associated with the ideation investment, organizations must learn to consistently recognize the most appropriate and most advantageous ideas. However, research indicates that despite continuous interest in creativity and innovation, companies are not as effective in optimizing their ideation portfolios. Furthermore, increasingly relevant cross-cultural differences in creativity introduce additional levels of complexity that still remain to be fully explored by creativity researchers and management practitioners. My research looks to extend the knowledge of how individuals evaluate novel ideas and seeks to make a two-fold contribution to this line of research. First, I construct and test a theoretical model depicting relationships among key dimensions assessed as part of overall idea valuation. Specifically, I examine how the degree of an idea’s novelty influences the perception of usefulness and how this dynamic translates into formulation of an overall assessment. Next, I examine the effect of culture on idea evaluation through the effect of cognitive and regulatory mechanisms on the perceived relationships among the key creativity dimensions. In my research I find support for the proposed trade-off relationship between novelty and usefulness that contributes to an individual’s overall idea assessment. Furthermore, this study provided preliminary evidence for the effect of culture on the relationships among novelty, usefulness, and value; however, the specific mechanisms that were proposed in the study were not supported. Overall, this dissertation contributes to the field of organizational creativity by identifying interrelationship among key dimensions of idea evaluation, novelty, and usefulness, and demonstrating how this relationship impacts an individual’s overall assessment of an idea.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Management
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_6574
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
1 online resource (ix, 99 p. : ill.)
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Creative ability
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Marina McCarthy
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - Newark Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore10002600001
Location
PhysicalLocation (authority = marcorg); (displayLabel = Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey)
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.