The influential power of roles conforming an idea’s social network on decision makers’ evaluation

The objective of my research is to find out which are the roles that positively influence decision makers during the evaluation of an innovative idea. Literature has analyzed the difficulties that managers face to truly grasp the value of an idea. Some psychological traits such as risk aversion or economic mindset hinder their ability to be creative and recognize creativity. Some contextual factors such as having an innovation culture or the idea screening process can also have an effect on managers' perception of creativity. Although, social networks around an idea seem to be another influential factor, little is known about the composition of these networks. Getting more clarity on the roles conforming the social network and the way how they exert influence on decision maker's appraisal can be key for the two actors driving innovation: on the one hand, the idea creator can search for a powerful sponsor of her idea; on the other hand, the decision maker can look for specific trusted people to make more accurate judgements of ideas. The source of data of this research is the idea management system of an insurance company. Being an internal system, both idea creators and managers have full transparency on the maturity of the idea, collaborators (who and how), evaluation by any member of the network, and the stage in the idea screening. 

Zoom link: https://eur-nl.zoom.us/j/96426021248?pwd=Znd0R1YxMURyZUZlT21heU9BeDVoQT09&from=addon

Meeting ID: 964 2602 1248