The Effect of Participant Diversity on Perceived Merits of Collaborative Innovaitons

• In Event: 200 - Regular Session. Organizations: Logics, Hybridity, and Identity

Abstract

Technological innovations often involve collaborations among firms from diverse industries. Much of the innovation studies in the management and organization literature has viewed diversity of participants on a collaborative project as a conduit of nonredundant information or complementary resources, focusing on the performance outcomes of projects that put together a diverse team. In this study, we take a sociocognitive perspective and ask how participant diversity serves as a cognitive primer, affecting external reviewers’ evaluation of potential merits of an innovative project. We argue that there are two logics at work in the process of evaluating innovations: the logic of technological advancement, and the logic of commercialization. When an innovative project involves firms from diverse industries, it may be perceived as having a fuzzier market identity, hence making it less appealing to reviewers who hold a strong commercialization logic. But the penalty associated with participant diversity should be much less pronounced among reviewers holding a strong logic of technological advancement. We found support for our hypothesis with a sample of collaborative innovation projects funded by the Advanced Technology Program the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology.

Authors

• Yu-chieh Lo, Drexel University

• Haiyang Li, Rice University