| Employees’ creative ideas are the source for enterprises to maintain innovation vitality and gain long-term competitive advantage.Novelty,as the most critical element of creative ideas,shows the unique,rarity and originality of ideas compared with existing products and markets,and highlights the potential value and creativity of ideas.In view of the strategic significance of novel ideas to stimulate the vitality and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises,more and more enterprises actively guide and promote the generation of employees’ creative ideas in various ways.For example,Google provides employees with "20% innovation time",which has spawned original products such as Ad Sense,Gmail,Google News and GTalk;3M Company formulated the 15% rule and the opponent’s proof system,which gave birth to famous products such as post-it notes,isolation tapes and nonwoven technology;Amazon provides leapfrog approval system,which aims to fully support and protect novel ideas.However,in reality,many novel ideas are suspected and rejected by managers,and the adoption rate of ideas is very low.For example,from 2008 to 2015,the creative adoption rate of Amway employees’ creative platform was only 2.5%;Intel established an internal innovation platform in 2015 with a hatching rate of only 0.8% for five years;In 2018,Kenichi Ohmae,a Japanese business management consultant,pointed out through research that the adoption rate of creative ideas in Japan is only 0.1%-0.3%;In 2021,Midea Meiyun Smart Digital Technology Star and R&D Manager pointed out that the proportion in Midea is just 0.1%.In view of how to improve the adoption rate of creative ideas,the existing research either emphasizes the positive role of creative quality and employees’ initiative behavior from the creative supply side,or emphasizes the path dependence and bounded rational decisionmaking preference of managers from the creative demand side.Few studies consider the characteristics and behaviors of both supply and demand sides at the same time,and explore the key paths and core mechanisms that affect the willingness to adopt creativity from the perspective of interaction.Therefore,this study focuses on the practical problem "why managers crave but often reject employees’ creative ideas with high degree of novelty",and seeks effective ways and methods to improve the adoption rate by excavating the key elements and behaviors that affect the adoption of novelty ideas.Based on the theoretical framework of "variation-choice-retention"(VSR)and focusing on the "choice" process of novelty ideas by managers,the degree of "variation" between new ideas and regular organizational projects is displayed by the degree of ideas’ novelty,the complex and contradictory mentality of decision makers in evaluating and screening new ideas is displayed by the managerial cognition,and the willingness and level of managers to retain new projects are displayed by idea adoption.Using the above framework,we hope to answer the following questions: First,what causes the imbalance between the supply and demand sides of employees’ creative ideas? Second,what is the core mechanism of managers’ ambivalence of thirst and rejection of novelty idea? Third,in the process of interaction between employees and managers,what can be done to alleviate these imbalances and contradictions?In order to analyze the above problems,firstly,on the basis of literature review and multi-case studies,this study deeply discusses the differentiated influence results of idea novelty,managerrial cognition and idea championing on idea adoption in different situations,and preliminarily summarizes the possible mechanism and influence path.Secondly,on the basis of the existing theories,the relationship between idea novelty,managerial cognition,idea championing and idea adoption are deduced logically.This paper puts forward the assumption that there is a corresponding match between idea novelty,managerrial cognition and idea adoption.And the research hypothesis that idea championging regulates the relationship between idea novelty and managerial cognition,idea novelty and idea adoption.Finally,this study takes employees and their managers in science and technology innovation enterprises as the research objects,and takes 51 leaders and 267 employees’ valid questionnaires successfully collected and matched as samples,and verifies the relevant research hypotheses by using the method of cross-hierarchical structural equation model.Based on the above research work,the main conclusions and contributions of this study are as follows:First,the difference in value cognition between employees and managers is the core reason for the imbalance between supply and demand of creative ideas.Novelty and creativity are often the core contents that employees think can bring competitive advantage to the organization,while managers pay more attention to projects consistent with organizational strategic objectives based on dominant logic and path dependence.Therefore,as far as managers are concerned,idea novelty is not "the more the better".With the aggravation of novelty,the negative effects of uncertainty and risk continue to grow,and the relationship between idea novelty and idea adoption presents an inverted U-shaped relationship.This study explains the reasons for the inconsistent results of previous studies from the perspective of role differences,which is helpful to explore and understand the deep-seated reasons for the low adoption rate of novelty ideas more comprehensively.Secondly,competitiveness and feasibility cognition are the core antagonistic mechanism for managers to perceive the value of ideas and influence their final decision-making willingness,and the contradictory mentality of managers who are eager for and reject novelty ideas is also rooted in this.This study breaks away from the existing thinking of exploring the influence relationship between idea novelty and adoption intention from linear relationship or single mechanism.On the basis of deepening the rational structure dimension of managerial cognition,this study analyzes and points out the core reasons for the inverted U-shaped relationship between idea novelty and idea adoption.Third,the existing research on why managers are easy to reject novelty ideas have achieved more results.Most of the literature focuses on the main effect and intermediary mechanism,but the exploration of boundary conditions is very limited.In response to Yuel(2008,2010),Parker(2006,2010)and other scholars’ call for academic attention to the influence of employee initiative behavior on innovation process,this study explores and finds that employees’ idea championing behavior have a significant positive strengthening effect on managerial cognition and idea adoption,which can effectively improve managers’ acceptance and tolerance of novelty ideas.However,different championing behaviors have different applicable stages.Employees must pay attention to ways,methods and opportunities while taking initiative to advocate creative ideas. |
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