Feedback in collective ideation : How does feedback affect the development of ideas within an idea management system?

Abstract: Innovative ideas are generated in many different arenas in modern organizations. One of the arenas is the web-enabled idea management systems. The idea management systems provide a venue for individuals or groups to share ideas to a large group of heterogeneous individuals within the organization. The aim is to draw upon the diverse source of knowledge from the group to develop the ideas further, improving their quality, and make them feasible as innovations. In this paper we have developed a tentative theoretical framework to investigate if and how different dimensions of feedback affect development of ideas within an idea management system. The theoretical framework then serves as a basis for an empirical research performed on data from an internal idea management system in a multinational telecommunications company. The study shows association of many of the feedback dimensions with idea quality. Iterative feedback, confirmation, feedback valence, and feedback style, show signs of positive relation, while number of feedback per idea shows negative relation. Additional information had both elements of positive and negative relation to idea quality. Finally, managerial implications are derived based on the results from the empirical research and previous research associated with the theoretical framework.