|Davis, Lee N.; Davis, Jerome; Hoisl, Karin (1. January 2009): What Inspires Leisure Time Invention? Discussion Papers in Business Administration 2009-7|
This paper seeks to understand the intriguing but only sparsely explored phenomenon of “leisure time invention,” where the main underlying idea for the new product or process occurs when the inventor is away from the workplace. We add to previous research by focussing on the inventive creativity of the individual researcher, and reassessing the image of researchers inventing during unpaid time – who have often been dispatched as “hobbyists”. Based on the responses from a survey of over 3,000 German inventors, we tested hypotheses on the conditions under which leisure time invention is likely to arise. Results suggest that the incidence of leisure time invention is positively related to exposure to a variety of knowledge inputs – but, surprisingly, not to the quality of prior inventive output. Leisure time inventions are more frequently observed in conceptual-based technologies than in science-based technologies, in smaller R&D projects, and in externally financed R&D projects.
|Item Type:||Paper (Discussion Paper)|
|Keywords:||Leisure Time, Inventiveness, Organizational Creativity|
|Faculties:||Munich School of Management|
Munich School of Management > Discussion Papers
Munich School of Management > Discussion Papers > Innovation Research
|Subjects:||300 Social sciences > 300 Social sciences, sociology and anthropology|
300 Social sciences > 330 Economics
|JEL Classification:||O31, O32, O34, J22|
|Deposited On:||06. Apr 2009 11:45|
|Last Modified:||29. Apr 2016 09:06|
Amabile, T.M., R. Conti, H. Coon, J. Lazenby, M. Herron. 1996. Assessing the Work Environment for Creativity. Academy of Management Journal. 39(5) 1154-1184. Amabile, T.M., C.N. Hadley, S.J. Kramer. 2002. Creativity under the Gun. Harvard Business Review. 80(8) 52-61. Amabile, T.M., J.S. Mueller, W.B. Simpson, C.N. Hadley, J.S. Kramer, L. Fleming. 2001. Time Pressure and Creativity in Organizations: A Longitudina Field Study. HBS Working Paper No. 02-073, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA. Armbruster, B.B. 1989. Metacognition in Creativity. J.A. Glover, R.R. Ronning, C.R. Reynolds, eds. Handbook of Creativity. Springer, Frankfurt, 177-182. Åstebro, T. 2003. The Return to Independent invention: Evidence of Unrealistic Optimism, Risk Seeking or Skewness Loving?. The Economic Journal. 113 226-239. Barron, F., D.M. Harrington. 1981. Creativity, Intelligence and Personality. Annual Review of Psychology 32 439-476. Basalla, G. 1988. The Evolution of Technology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA. Beneria, L. 1999 . The Enduring Debate over Unpaid Labour. International Labour Review. 138(3) 287-309. Brown, R.T. 1989. Creativity. What are we to Measure? J.A. Glover, R.R. Ronning, C.R. Reynolds, eds. Handbook of Creativity. Springer, Frankfurt, 6-7. Burt, R.S. 2004. Structural Holes and Good Ideas. American Journal of Sociology. 110 349-399. Cockburn, I. 2008. Small and Independent Inventors: What They Do and Why It Matters”. unpublished manuscript. Cohen, W. M., R.R. Nelson, J.P. Walsh. 2000. Protecting Their Intellectual Assets: Appropriability Conditions and Why U. S. Manufacturing Firms Patent (or Not). NBER Working Paper No. 7552, Cambridge, MA. Collins, M.A., T.M. Amabile. 1999. Motivation and creativity. R.J. Sternberg, ed. Handbook of Creativity. Cambridge University Press, New York, 286-312. Dacey, J.S., K.H. Lennon. 1998. Understanding Creativity: The Interplay of Biological, Social and Psychological Factors. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco. Dahlin, K., M. Taylor, M. Fichman. 2004. Today’s Edisons or Weekend Hobbyists: Technical Merit and Success of Invention by Independent Inventors. Research Policy. 33(8) 1167-1183. Davis, L., J. Davis. 2008. Managing Employee “Leisure Time” Inventiveness. Paper presented to the Academy of Management Conference, Anaheim, CA, August 2008. Elsbach, K.D., A.B. Hargadon. 2006. Enhancing Creativity Through “Mindless” Work: A Framework of Workday Design. Organization Science. 17(4) 470-483. Emmanuelson, J. 1999. An Introduction to the New Oxide Superconductors, Colorado Futurescience, Inc. at http://www.futurescience.com/scintro.html. EPO 2007. Guidelines for Examination in the European Patent Office, Munich. Farmer, S.M., P. Tierney, K. Kung-McIntyre. 2003. Employee Creativity in Taiwan: An Application of Role Identity Theory. Academy of Management Journal. 46 618-630. Fleming, L. 2006. Lone Inventors are the Source of Technological Breakthroughs; Myth or Reality?. HBS Working Paper, Harvard Business School, Boston, MA. Fleming, L., O. Sorenson. 2004. Science as a Map in Technological Search. Strategic Management Journal. 25(8/9) 909-928. Fraser, J.A. 2001. White-Collar Sweatshop. W.W. Norton & Co., New York. Gambardella, A., D. Harhoff, B. Verspagen. 2007. The Value of European Patents, Working Paper. Gilfillan, S. 1935 (reprinted 1970). The Sociology of Invention. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA. Gray, C.F., E.W. Larson. 2003. Project Management, 2nd ed. McGraw-Hill, New York. Griliches, Z. 1970. Notes on the Role of Education in Production Functions and Growth Accounting. L. Hansen, ed. Education, Income, and Human Capital. NBER, Cambridge, MA, 71-115. Hackman, J.R., G. Oldham, R. Janson, K. Purdy. 1975. A New Strategy for Job Enrichment. California Management Review. 17 57-71. Hall, B.H. 2005. The Financing of Innovation. S. Shane, ed. Blackwell Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management. Blackwell Publishers, Oxford. Hallowell, E.M. 2005. Overloaded Circuits. Why Smart People Underperform. Harvard Business Review. 83(January) 1-9. Hamilton, B. 2000. Does Entrepreneurship Pay? An Empirical Analysis of the Returns to Self-Employment. Journal of Political Economy. 108(3) 604-631. Hargadon, A. B. 1998. Firms as Knowledge Broakers: Lessons in Pursuing continuous Innovation. California Management Review. 40(3) 209-227. Hargadon, A. B. 1999. Group Cognition and Creativity in Organizations. E.A. Mannix, M.A. Neale, R. Wageman, eds. Research on Managing Groups and Teams, Vol. 2. JAI Press, New York, 137-155. Hargadon, A. B., R.I. Sutton. 1997. Technology Brokering and Innovation in a Product Development Firm. Administrative Science Quarterly. 42(4) 716-749. Harhoff, D. 2007. Patent Citation Project 2007, Description of the Equivalents based on PATSTAT 04/2007. http://www.inno-tec.de/forschung/forschungsprojekte/patent_cit_ project/index.html. Harhoff, D., K. Hoisl, C. Webb. 2008. European Patent Citations - How to Count and How to Interpret Them. unpublished manuscript, University of Munich. Harhoff, D., F. Narin, F.M. Scherer, K. Vopel. 1999. Citation Frequency and the Value of Patented Inventions. The Review of Economics and Statistics. 81 511-515. Hatchuel, A., B. Weil, P. le Massson. 2003. Building Innovation Capabilities. The Development of Design-Oriented Organizations. J.T. Hage, ed. In Innovation, Learning and Macro Institutional Change: Patterns of Knowledge Changes. Hatchuel, A., B. Weil. 2003. A New Approach to Innovative Design: An Introduction to C-K Theory. Paper presented at the International Conference on Engineering Design ICED 03, Stockholm Sweden, August 19-21. Heinsohn, R.J. 2007. The Wright Brothers and William Brewster, available at www.sail1620.org/discover_feature_the_wright_brothers_and_william_brewster.html, accessed February 13, 2007. Henderson, R.M., K.B. Clark. 1990. Architectural Innovation: The Configuration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of Established Firms. Administrative Science Quarterly. 25 9-30. Henderson R., I. Cockburn. 1994. Measuring competence? Exploring Firm Effects in Drug Discovery. Strategic Management Journal. Winter Special Issue 15 63-84. Hoisl, K. 2007a. Tracing Mobile Inventors - The Causality between Inventor Mobility and Inventor Productivity. Research Policy. 36(5) 619-636. Hoisl, K. 2007b. A Closer Look at Inventive Output - The Role of Age and Career Paths. Munich School of Management Discussion Paper No. 2007-12, Munich. Huff, A.S. 1980. Evocative Metaphors. Human Systems Management. 1 1-10. Janis, I.L. 1982. Groupthink. Houghton Mifflin, Boston, MA. Kaplan, S. 1996. An Introduction to TRIZ: The Russian Theory of Inventive Problem Solving. MI: Ideation International Inc., Southfield. Klevorick, A.K., R.C. Levin, R.R. Nelson, S.G. Winter. 1995. On the Sources and Significance of Interindustry Differences in Technological Opportunities. Research Policy. 24 185-205. Kelly, R., J. Caplan. 1997. How Bell Labs Creates Star Performers. R. Katz, ed. The Human Side of Managing Technological Innovation: A Collection of Readings. Oxford University Press, New York. Kris, E. 1952. Psychoanalytic Exploration in Art. International Universities Press, New York. Kubie, L. S. 1958. The Neurotic Distortion of the Creative Process. University of Kansas Press, Lawrence, Kansas. Martindale, C. 1989. Personality, Situation, and Creativity. J. Glover, R.R. Ronning, C.R. Reynolds, eds. Handbook of Creativity. Plenum, New York, 211-232. Milliken, F.J., C.A. Bartel, T. Kurtzberg. 2003. Diversity and Creativity in Work Groups: A Dynamic Perspective on the Affective and Cognitive Processes that Link Diversity and Performance. P. Paulus, B. Nijstad, eds. Group Creativity. Oxford University Press, New York, 32–62. Moon, S. 2005. How Does the Organization of Research Impact Research Outcomes? Evidence from Scientific Publications and Patenting Behavior. Discussion Paper, Kellogg School of Management. Mumford, M.D., S.B. Gustafson. (forthcoming) 2009. Creative Thought, Cognition and Problem Solving in Dynamic Systems. M.A. Runco, ed. Creativity Research Handbook, Vol. 2. Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ. Nelson, R.R. 1959. The Economics of Invention: A Survey of the Literature. The Journal of Business. 32(2) 101-127. Nelson, R.R., S.G. Winter. 1982. An Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change. Belknap Harward, Cambridge, M.A. Noy, P. 1969. A Revision of the Psychoanalytic Theory of the Primary Process. International Journal of Psychoanalysis. 50 155-178. OECD 1994. Using Patent Data as Science and Technological Indicators – Patent Manual 1994, Paris. Oldham G.R., A. Cummings. 1996. Employee Creativity: Personal and Contextual Factors at Work. Academy of Management Journal. 36(3) 607-634. Perlow, L.A. 2001. Finding Time. How Corporations, Individuals, and Families can Benefit from New Work Practices. Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Perlow, L.A. 1999. The Time Famine: Toward a Sociology of Work Time. Administrative Science Quarterly. 44 57-81. Reagans, R., L. Argote, D. Brooks. 2005. Individual Experience and Experience Working Together: Predicting Learning Rates from Knowing Who Knows What and Knowing How to Work Together. Management Science. 51(6) 869-881. Reid, S.E., U. De Brentani. 2004. The Fuzzy Front End of New Product Development for Discontinuous Innovations: A Theoretical Model. Journal of Product Innovation Management. 21 170-184. Roberts, K., J. Biddle. 1994. The Transition into Management by Scientists and Engineers: A Misallocation or Efficient Use of Human Resources?. Human Resource Management. 33(4) 561-579. Rosenberg, N. 1994. Exploring the Black Box: Technology Economics and History. Cambridge University Press, New York. Rothenberg, A. 1979. The Emerging Goddess. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. Royal Aeronautical Society. 2008. Human Powered Flight Group, available at http://www.raes.org.uk/cmspage.asp?cmsitemid=SG_Hum_Pow_Home, accessed on December 5, 2008. Schön, D.A. 1983. The Reflective Practitioner. Basic Books, New York. Schwenk, C.R. 1984. Cognitive Simplification Processes in Strategic Decision-Making. Strategic Management Journal. 5(2) 111-128. Shalley, C.E., J. Zhou, G.R. Oldham. 2004. The Effects of Personal and Contextual Characteristics on Creativity: Where should we Go from Here?. Journal of Management. 30(6) 933-958. Sherwood, B. 2006. Innovation: Do I need it? Do I have it? Can I get it?. Metal Finishing. 104(11) November. Simonton, D. K. 1999. Origin of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity. Oxford University Press, Oxford. Steinbruner, J.D. 1974. The Cybernetics Theory of Decisions. Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ. Stern, S. 1999. Do Scientists Pay to Be Scientists?. NBER Working Paper No. W7410, Cambridge, MA. Suler, J.R. 1980. Primary Process Thinking and Creativity. Psychological Bulletin. 88 144-165. Tschang, F.T., J. Szcypula. 2006. Idea Creation, Constructivism and Evolution as Key Characteristics in the Videogame Artifact Design Process. European Management Journal. 24(4) 270-287. U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Agency, Dryden Fact Sheet, available at http://www.nasa.gov/centers/dryden/news/FactSheets/FS-=054-DFRC.html, accessed on December 5, 2008. Weick, C.W., C.F. Eakin. 2005. Independent Inventors and Innovation: An Empirical Study. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. 6(1) 5-15. Weick, K.E, 1979. The Social Psychology of Organizing Addison Wesley, Reading, MA. Weitzman, M. L. 1996. Hybridizing Growth Theory’. American Economic Review. 86(2) 207-212.