Imperial College London
Portrait Picture

ProfessorPaolaCriscuolo

Business School

Professor of Innovation Management
 
 
 
//

Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 1582p.criscuolo Website

 
 
//

Location

 

275Business School BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

//

Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Criscuolo:2014:10.1287/orsc.2013.0856,
author = {Criscuolo, P and Salter, A and Ter, Wal A},
doi = {10.1287/orsc.2013.0856},
journal = {Organization Science},
pages = {1287--1305},
title = {Going underground: Bootlegging and individual innovative performance},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0856},
volume = {25},
year = {2014}
}
Download

RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - To develop innovations in large, mature organizations, individuals often have to resort to underground, “bootleg” research and development (R&D) activities that have no formal organizational support. In doing so, these individuals attempt to achieve greater autonomy over the direction of their R&D efforts and to escape the constraints of organizational accountability. Drawing on theories of proactive creativity and innovation, we argue that these underground R&D efforts help individuals to develop innovations based on the exploration of uncharted territory and delayed assessment of embryonic ideas. After carefully assessing the direction of causality, we find that individuals’ bootleg efforts are associated with achievement of high levels of innovative performance. Furthermore, we show that the costs and benefits of bootlegging for innovation are contingent on the emphasis on the enforcement of organizational norms in the individual’s work environment; we argue and demonstrate empirically that the benefits of an individual’s bootlegging efforts are enhanced in work units with high levels of innovative performance and which include members who are also engaged in bootlegging. However, during periods of organizational change involving formalization of the R&D process, individuals who increase their bootlegging activities are less likely to innovate. We explore the implications of these findings for our understanding of proactive and deviant creativity.
AU  - Criscuolo,P
AU  - Salter,A
AU  - Ter,Wal A
DO  - 10.1287/orsc.2013.0856
EP  - 1305
PY  - 2014///
SN  - 1047-7039
SP  - 1287
TI  - Going underground: Bootlegging and individual innovative performance
T2  - Organization Science
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2013.0856
UR  - http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/pdf/10.1287/orsc.2013.0856
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/15629
VL  - 25
ER  -
Download