Conversations and idea generation: Evidence from a field experiment |
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| Institution: | 1. Duke University – Fuqua School of Business, United States;2. Harvard Business School, United States;1. Department of Economics, Management, and Quantitative Methods, University of Milan, Via Conservatorio 7, 20122 Milan, Italy;2. Department of Economics and Statistics ‘Cognetti de Martiis’, University of Turin, Lungo Dora Siena 100A, 10153, Turin, Italy;3. Collegio Carlo Alberto, Piazza Vincenzo Arbarello 8, 10122 Turin, Italy;1. University of Johannesburg, South Africa;2. United-Nations University (UNU-MERIT), The Netherlands;3. Maastricht University and UNU-MERIT, The Netherlands;1. Centre for Applied Research in Economics & Management (CAREM), Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Wibauthuis, Wibautstraat 3b, 1091 GH Amsterdam, the Netherlands;2. Faculty of Economics (FEP), University of Porto, & Centre of Studies in Geography and Spatial Planning, University of Porto Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, 4200-464 Porto, Portugal;1. University of California at Berkeley, National Bureau of Economic Research, Institute of Fiscal Studies, and Max Planck Institute Munich, United States;2. Economics Department, Santa Clara University, United States |
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| Abstract: | When do conversations lead people to generate better ideas? We conducted a field experiment at a startup bootcamp to evaluate the impact of informal conversations on the quality of product ideas generated by participants. Specifically, we examine how the personality of an innovator (openness to experience, capturing creativity) and the personalities of her randomly assigned conversational peers (extroversion, measuring willingness to share information) affects the innovator's ideas. We find that open innovators who spoke with extroverted peers generated significantly better ideas than others at the bootcamp. However, closed individuals produced mediocre ideas regardless with who they spoke, suggesting limited benefits of conversations for these people. More surprisingly, open individuals, who are believed to be inherently creative, produced worse ideas after they spoke with introverted peers, suggesting individual creativity's dependence on external information. Our study demonstrates the importance of considering the traits of both innovators and their conversational peers in predicting when conversations will lead to better ideas. |
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| Keywords: | Ideation Creativity Entrepreneurship Startups Conversation Peer effects Openness Extroversion Field experiment |
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