Main Event - Paola Criscuolo (Imperial College Businness School)
Abstract
In this talk, Prof Criscuolo will delve into the critical role of autonomy and bottom-up inventions in driving creativity and innovation within large organizations. While existing research has shown that operational autonomy, or the freedom to determine how to approach a given problem, enhances employees’ creativity, this presentation will focus on a less-explored type of autonomy, namely strategic autonomy, or the freedom to decide which problems to tackle. Prof Criscuolo will present her prior work on “bootlegging”—the phenomenon where employees engage in unauthorized, underground, self-initiated innovation efforts. The positive spillovers effects of bootlegging on individual innovation performance found in this work will be juxtaposed with the findings from recent research examining problem formulation complexity of bottom-up inventions. Drawing on theories of creative problem-solving, Professor Criscuolo’s latest work leverages a unique dataset of invention disclosures from corporate inventors and the descriptions by inventors of the problem they try to tackle. The study hypothesizes and finds that bottom-up inventions exhibit lower problem formulation complexity than top-down inventions generated through structured R&D projects, where problems are predefined. This reduced complexity in problem formulation correlates with a lower likelihood of such inventions being considered for patent protection, underscoring potential limitations of employee-driven innovation in structured corporate settings. These two contributions advance our understanding of the nuanced role of autonomy in contributing to the innovative performance of large organizations, illuminating the advantages and trade-offs of operational and strategic autonomy.
Social event will follow at: 18:00 (post-seminar)
CLICK HERE FOR REGISTRATION
Complimentary aperitivo at Farinami Bicocca, Piazza della Trivulziana, 5. A Young Scholar Initiative (YSI) event.
Note: For organizational efficiency, registration is important. Upon registration, you will receive an entry form to allow immediate access to the seminar premises on the day of the event. The complimentary aperitivo has limited space, available on a first-come, first-served basis, with registered seminar attendees receiving priority. However, participation in the seminar remains possible also without registration and the aperitivo will be, in the worst case, at the at the expense of the participants.
