Welcome to Revise and Resubmit, the podcast where we break down cutting-edge research to spark fresh insights and unexpected questions. Today, we dive into a fascinating paper titled “Organizational Selection of Innovation” by Daniel Mochon and Janet Schwartz, published in the prestigious Organization Science—an elite member of the FT50 list of the world’s top business journals.
Innovation often hinges on one question: How do organizations choose which projects to pursue when resources are tight? This paper models the complex decision-making process organizations face when selecting innovations. When should they delegate choices to experts? When is it wiser to aggregate input from multiple decision-makers? Mochon and Schwartz’s findings suggest that ranking projects by individual preference often beats other methods like voting or averaging, especially when budgets are limited. With ranking, even mistakes in judgment become more manageable—allowing for sharper, more strategic decisions in uncertain environments.
Both authors bring deep expertise to the table. Daniel Mochon, known for his work on decision-making and behavioral economics, explores the subtle ways organizations optimize choices under constraints. Janet Schwartz, a professor of marketing, delves into how human behavior influences decision quality. Together, they offer practical insights for anyone navigating the delicate balance between innovation, risk, and limited resources.
But here’s a question worth pondering: Is ranking always the best way to choose, or does it introduce biases that organizations overlook?
Special thanks to the authors and to INFORMS PubsOnline for making this research open access. Now, let’s dive into the world of innovation and strategy!
Reference
Lucas Böttcher, Ronald Klingebiel (2024) Organizational Selection of Innovation. Organization Science 0(0).
https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2023.17357
