Pamela Hinds, Professor of Management, Science & Engineering, Hasso Plattner Institute of Design at Stanford University
Thursday, May 2, 2024 - 1:30pm - 3:00pm
Abstract
Feedback can spur creators toward improved ideas. Despite its potential, however, feedback is not universally beneficial to creative performance. The authors posit that focusing on the social structure of the feedback network, that is, how creative projects are connected to one another through feedback providers, can deepen understanding of the relationship between project feedback and idea quality. Research has established that social networks can improve idea quality through social capital when they provide creators access to novel information and creators attend to that information. The authors propose a complimentary source of capital, “influence capital,” that they argue is particularly relevant in an innovation context in which determining the quality of ideas is more ambiguous and being successful requires alignment with organizational goals. Specifically, they posit that “secondhand influence capital,” based not on direct contacts, but the networks of one’s contacts, may be as or more important than social capital in innovation communities. This study examines an open innovation community in which distributed contributors and feedback providers collaborate to generate new ideas for challenges sponsored by an organization. The results indicate that while closure (an indicator of social capital) in feedback networks is not significantly associated with idea quality, influence capital is positively and significantly associated with idea quality. These results advance theory by introducing influence capital as a second pathway through which social networks are associated with idea quality in innovation communities.
Biography
Pamela J. Hinds is Fortinet Founders Chair and Professor of Management Science & Engineering, Co-Director of the Center on Work, Technology, and Organization and on the Director's Council for the Hasso Plattner Institute of Design. She studies the effect of technology on teams, collaboration, and innovation. Pamela has conducted extensive research on the dynamics of cross-boundary work teams, particularly those spanning national borders. She explores issues of culture, language, identity, conflict, and the role of site visits in promoting knowledge sharing and collaboration. Much of this work is now highly relevant to understanding the new wave of remote and hybrid work. She has published extensively on the relationship between national culture and work practices, particularly exploring how work practices or technologies created in one location are understood and employed at distant sites. Pamela also has a body of research on human-robot interaction in the work environment and the dynamics of human-robot teams. Most recently, Pamela has been looking at the changing nature of work in the face of emerging technologies, including the nature of coordination in open innovation, the work of data analysts and, most recently, emerging technologies in dairy farming.