A Study Of The Antecedents And Consequences Of Creative Deviance From The Idea Journey Perspective

Employee innovation is an essential cornerstone of an organization’s ability to innovate and thrive in a dynamic environment.To this end,a growing number of companies are taking various forms to encourage employee innovation.However,there is a paradox in the practice of organizational innovation management: on the one hand,employees are encouraged to pursue innovation and their sense of creative autonomy is stimulated;on the other hand,due to the limited resources,a series of systems and rules have to be formulated to veto the majority of creative ideas.When employees are unable to achieve their innovative goals through formal means,structural tensions arise and they turn to informal means,i.e.,ignoring leaders’ vetoes and refining and perfecting their ideas in violation of the rules.Scholars have defined the behavior of individuals who continue to refine ideas against the vetoes of their superiors as creative deviance.Especially in today’s era of innovation,the conflict between an employees’ sense of creative autonomy and organizational constraints is increasing,which makes creative deviance more and more emergent and prominent.At the same time,research shows that creative deviant ideas are more radical and novel,and once successful,they are more likely to bring about disruptive innovations and significantly enhance the competitive advantage of enterprises.In view of the frequency and value of creative deviance,academics have paid extra attention to creative deviance and have achieved a series of rich research results on the concepts,measurements,antecedents and consequences of creative deviance.Based on the existing literature,this study finds the following research shortcomings.(1)There is a lack of systematic revelation of the complete path of creative deviance from formation to impact from the perspective of idea journey.Existing literature tends to examine the antecedents or consequences of creative deviance separately,lacks a complete understanding of the longitudinal journey from formation to impact of creative deviance,and ignores to track how individuals realize the longitudinal journey from idea generation,creative deviance,idea championing to idea implementation from the perspective of idea journey,which restricts the exploration of the trajectory of creative deviance development.(2)Ignoring the research on the influence mechanism of customer participation on creative deviance.Concerning the antecedents of creative deviance,existing research has ignored the process of focusing on how individuals generate ideas and then refine them through creative deviance from the perspective of the idea journey.As corporate innovation activities move from inside to the outside,employees are easily guided by customer needs to generate pro-customer creative ideas under a high level of customer engagement,and even commitment to external stakeholders is likely to drive employees to engage in creative deviance in defiance of leader vetoes.Neglecting the research on the impact mechanism of customer participation on creative deviance will make it difficult to provide guidance for business practitioners on utilizing customer participation to guide creative deviance.(3)Few studies have focused on the effects of creative deviance on idea implementation.Regarding the consequences of creative deviance,few studies have tracked how creative deviance passes through the longitudinal course of idea championing and idea implementation from the perspective of the idea journey.However,creative deviance is only a way and means of elaborating ideas for both creators and enterprises,and it is only when the elaborated ideas are pushed into implementation that they can truly exert their value and assist enterprises in realizing innovative breakthroughs and technological changes.Therefore,it is necessary to study how creative deviance passes through the longitudinal course of idea championing and idea implementation.This will be conducive to enterprise practitioners to guide the creative deviance to enhance organizational effectiveness,but previous studies have neglected to explore this issue.The paper constructs three studies to fill the above research gaps.(1)An exploratory case study of the antecedents and consequences of creative deviance from the perspective of idea journey.According to the event system theory and idea journey,this study constructs the research framework of "idea generation-creative deviance-idea endorsement-idea implementation".Based on this framework,we guide the collection,coding and analysis of the case data to further identify the key antecedent variables and formation mechanisms of creative deviance,as well as the important outcome variables and action mechanisms,so as to inductive the research propositions and draw the theoretical model,laying the foundation for the deductive analysis of the subsequent research.(2)Revealing the mechanism of customer participation’s influence on creative deviance.StudyⅠ inducts the research proposition from the perspective of idea journey: customer participation stimulates employee creative process engagement,which in turn promotes creative deviance.Study II triangulates the theoretical and methodological validation of the propositions of Study I with different theoretical perspectives and a large sample of questionnaires,while supplementing the analysis of boundary conditions.Specifically,based on the cognitive appraisal theory of stress,the mediating role of creative process engagement in the process of customer participation influencing creative deviance is explored,and the boundary conditions of perceived organizational support and pro-social motivation are supplemented,thus providing insights into the mechanism of customer participation’s influence on employees’ creative deviance.Based on a two-time point questionnaire survey,476 valid employee questionnaires are obtained for empirical analysis and testing.(3)Research on the mechanism of creative deviance to idea implementation.Study Ⅰ inducts the key mediating roles of decision-makers’ idea usefulness assessment and idea endorsement in promoting the transformation of creative deviance to idea implementation from the perspective of idea journey.Study III triangulates the theoretical and methodological validation of the propositions of Study I with different theoretical perspectives and a large sample of questionnaires,while supplementing the analysis of boundary conditions.Specifically,based on the path of least resistance theory,the chain mediation path of "creative deviance-idea usefulness-idea endorsement-idea implementation" is constructed;based on the attitude change-persuasion model,focusing on the dichotomous interaction between superiors and subordinates,the upward influence strategy and managerial openness are identified and supplemented as the moderating variables of creative deviance affecting the idea usefulness,so as to construct the mechanism of creative deviance affecting the role of idea implementation.Combined with the critical event method,444leader-employee paired questionnaires are obtained for empirical analysis and hypothesis testing.From qualitative to quantitative,from inductive to deductive,this study sequentially confirms and gradually deepens the answer to the question of "where does creative deviance come from" and "where does it go" in the perspective of idea journey,and the specific conclusions are as follows.(1)The formation and impact of creative deviance from the perspective of idea journey has gone through a complete path from customer participation,creative process engagement,creative deviance,idea usefulness,idea endorsement to idea implementation;(2)Customer participation is an important antecedent variable of creative deviance;(3)creative process engagement reveals the intermediary mechanism through which customer participation influences creative deviance;(4)Perceived organizational support and pro-social motivation are important factors that facilitate the transition of customer participation to creative process engagement,and creative deviance;(5)Idea endorsement and idea implementation are important outcome variables of creative deviance;(6)Idea usefulness and idea endorsement reveal the mediating mechanism by which creative deviance affects idea implementation;(7)Upward influence strategy and managerial openness are boundary conditions that attenuate the negative impact of creative deviance on idea implementation.The theoretical contributions are as follows.(1)Revealing the complete path of creative deviance from formation to impact from the perspective of idea journey;(2)Identifying customer participation as an important antecedent variable of creative deviance;(3)Revealing the mechanism by which customer participation influences creative deviance;(4)Identifying the mediating mechanism of idea endorsement in the relationship between creative deviance and idea implementation;(5)Revealing the mediating mechanism of idea usefulness between creative deviance and idea endorsement;(6)Identifying the boundary conditions of upward influence strategy and management openness in the process of creative deviance influencing idea implementation.The management insights are as follows.(1)Business practitioners should advocate for creative deviance and guide employees to effectively promote idea development;(2)It provides lessons for business leaders to fully transform customer participation into employee innovation;(3)It suggests that leaders should pay attention to other phases of idea development in addition to idea generation.