This chapter explores the dual perspective of ideas as objects and as triggers-for-change within idea development and innovation management research. It emphasizes the need to balance structured problem-solving with fostering creativity and engagement. Exploring idea development as a blend of creative processes, design activities, and social interactions, underscores the significance of idea sharing, knowledge integration, idea ownership, and establishing legitimacy for ideas. Scholars and practitioners are provided with guidance on comprehending idea development as a multifaceted and evolving process, along with managerial directives for implementation.

This research explores the socio-technical factors behind employees' quiet quitting by investigating how social factors (boreout syndrome and digital cohorts) and technical factors (IS-induced depletion and social media usage) interact to encourage this behavior. A two-wave design across two independent studies was used with an expanded analytical approach. Study 1 used a symmetric variable-based analysis to identify IS-induced depletion, boreout, low social media usage, and digital immigrant status as key predictors of quiet quitting. In Study 2, boreout, social media usage, and digital immigrant status emerged as significant predictors. An asymmetric casebased analysis further demonstrated that quiet quitting results from combinations of conditions: in Study 1, ISinduced depletion and boreout were prevalent among digital immigrants with low social media usage. Similarly, in Study 2, IS-induced depletion and boreout occurred among digital natives or individuals with low social media usage. Contrary to the assumption that digital natives are more prone to quiet quitting, the findings indicate that digital immigrants are, in fact, more susceptible to this behavior when exposed to these stressors.

Traditionally idea screening has been understood as a selection process, but recent studies have shown that idea evaluators engage in creative activities during screening. This approach has been conceptualized as generative idea screening. In this study, we analyzed how expert evaluators perform generative screening. By analyzing idea screening situations, we found that experts rely primarily on three types of generative activities that focus on adapting, concretizing, or changing an idea. Innovation managers can use this information to organize and direct generative activities during idea screening. We also discovered four idea screening processes: simple evaluation, simple modification, cyclical modification, and cyclical exploration. Adapting and concretizing an idea are prevalent activities in these four processes, which suggests that generative idea screening is best used for identifying and solving issues related to how an idea is presented and implemented. PRACTITIONER TAKEAWAYS: Generative screening is a creative process companies can use to improve upon initial ideas for innovation. Instead of asking experts to merely improve upon ideas, innovation managers can ask them to adapt the ideas to make them easier to implement; to concretize ideas to make them easier to understand; and/or to change the idea to encourage divergent thinking. Innovation managers can use generative idea screening as input for further ideation and harvest the experts’ creative potential more effectively, rather than solely focusing on identifying the most promising ideas during screening.

Generativ AI har på kort tid blivit ett verktyg som möjliggör snabb generering av kreativa idéer. Men även om AI kan öka mängden idéer kvarstår frågan: vad avgör vilka idéer som faktiskt överlever och vidareutvecklas i innovationsprocessen? Tidigare forskning har visat att idéers överlevnad i organisationer inte är en enkel eller linjär process. Legitimering inom organisationen, upplevd tydlighet, användarvärde, genomförbarhet och individens vilja att driva idéer framåt spelar avgörande roller.

Syftet med denna artikel är att fördjupa förståelsen för vad som faktiskt driver idéer vidare i innovationsprocessen och diskutera vilken roll AI bör spela – eller inte spela – i detta arbete. Vi utgår från tre nyligen genomförda studier som belyser olika faser av idéutveckling, både med och utan stöd av generativ AI.

The transition to a circular economy (CE) is increasingly recognized as a strategic priority for companies striving for more sustainable business operations. Previous CE research adopted different firm-level strategy perspectives with varying degrees of alignment to the management literature. However, scholars have struggled to combine these perspectives in ways that effectively guide firms' transitions towards a CE. This study aims to unpack the CE strategy concept and examine it as a system of interconnected perspectives. First, drawing on the existing literature, we propose a nuanced framework that distinguishes between CE design, innovation and organizational strategies. Second, using empirical data from the Swedish wood construction industry, we analyse CE strategies as distinct configurations by applying configuration theory and a configurational approach. Through fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA), we identify four firm-level configurations that demonstrate different design efforts to achieve high levels of circularity. These configurations are enabled by specific innovation strategies and organizational capabilities within companies. Our findings offer valuable contributions to CE research and provide actionable insights for managerial practices.

Sustainability transitions are a significant challenge that requires established industries to adopt innovative ways of doing business. Research suggests that while this is possible through business model innovation (BMI), risk avoidance by regime actors and high levels of future uncertainty act as barriers to successful transitions. Specifically, we lack knowledge about how established companies innovate their business model (BM) to reduce uncertainty related to sustainability transitions. We explore the case of a large forest-based manufacturing company in the construction industry, Stora Enso. We find that, by pursuing transformative BMI and combining multiple value creation logics, a company can reduce different types of uncertainty while shaping its business ecosystem towards more sustainable opportunities. We show that the BM can serve as an organizational tool for collectively exploring new knowledge, reducing uncertainty and driving change in a business ecosystem.

This case study is based on a research project that analyzed how expert evaluators combine different modes of thinking when screening ideas for innovation. The findings of this research project are detailed in the journal article, “How experts screen ideas: the complex interplay of intuition, analysis and sensemaking” by Sukhov et al. What makes the research project interesting is that it combined three concepts that have been used to study idea screening (intuition, analysis, and sensemaking) and analyzed what these concepts look like in practice and how they are combined to find high-quality ideas. This case study focuses on the methodological choices that enabled implementing this research project. At the heart of the research project was a mixed-methods research design that combined grounded theory coding with fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (also referred to as fsQCA) to elaborate different idea screening activities and show how they are used to make decisions on idea quality. Reading this case study helps to understand how to combine these analytical techniques and develop research designs that elaborate different dimensions of data and show how these different dimensions are used together. These ideas can be applied in three primary ways. First, this research design provides a systematic way to analyze datasets that consist of rich qualitative data and multiple cases. Second, it enables studying how alternative (or even competing) theories work together to explain empirical phenomena. Third, this study outlines one way to use fsQCA on qualitative data.

Idea evaluation is used to identify and select ideas for development as future innovations. However, approaching idea evaluation as a decision gate can limit the role of the person evaluating ideas, create fixation bias, and underutilise the person’s creative potential. Although studies show that during evaluation experts are able to engage in design activities, it is still not clear how they design and develop ideas. The aim of this study was to understand how experts develop ideas during evaluation. Using the think-aloud technique, we identify different ways in which experts develop ideas. Specifically, we show how experts transform initial idea concepts using iterative steps of elaboration and transformation of different idea components. Then, relying on concept-knowledge theory (C-K theory), we identify six types of reasoning that the experts use during idea evaluation. This helps us to distinguish between three different roles that experts can move between during evaluation: gatekeeper, designer managing fixation, and designer managing defixation. These findings suggest that there is value in viewing idea evaluation as a design process because it allows us to identify and leverage the experts’ knowledge and creativity to a fuller extent.

The role of idea screening is to identify promising ideas and select the most qualified ones to proceed into the NPD process. Equally important is understanding which ideas should be avoided to prevent potential failures and avoid unnecessary expenditure of resources. During intuitive decision-making, experts may favor the familiar over the new and may factor personal affection into the decision. Thus, in the context of screening ideas for innovative products, relying entirely on intuition may be risky since the task might require decision-makers to identify radical innovations and look outside of their own comfort zone. Sensemaking is a process that enables people to develop plausible meanings and take actions based on that meaning making. In idea screening, sensemaking can occur when a person struggles to understand an idea or how to proceed with screening. Instead, generative screening can be used by organizations when the intent is to explore new opportunities, use raw ideas as triggers for inspiration. 

This study demonstrates the value of integrating different analytical perspectives to identify significant factors and characterize their importance. Specifically, we combine three analytical methods – partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM), necessary condition analysis (NCA), and fuzzy set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) – to create an expanded analytical process that enables informed decision-making. PLS-SEM identifies significant correlations between the predictor and outcome variables, NCA identifies critical bottlenecks required for a specific outcome, and fsQCA identifies configurations of conditions sufficient for producing a specific outcome. By applying this expanded analytical process to subjectively reported data on service quality and perceived accessibility, collected from five Nordic cities, we gain new insights into attracting an aging population to public transport. This study contributes to a better understanding of the nuances in the data, which is valuable for both research and practice.