Knowledge diversity and team creativity: How hobbyists beat professional designers in creating novel board games

Patrick Pollok, André Amft, Kathleen Diener, Dirk Lüttgens and Frank T. Piller

Research Policy, 2021, vol. 50, issue 8

Abstract: This study adds to the literature on household sector (HHS) innovation by investigating how user and professional designer teams differ in their ability to translate knowledge diversity into collective creative output. We test our hypotheses on a unique data set of more than 5,000 board game design projects conducted by either teams of professional game designers or by hobbyist (user) designers. Our study lends support for the notion that knowledge diversity is a double-edged sword that has opposing effects on the two dimensions of team creativity, novelty and usefulness. We argue and find that teams composed of self-rewarded users in the household sector are better able than teams of professionals to translate the informational benefits of knowledge diversity into novel concepts and game designs. Finally, we find that user teams are in general more likely to create truly creative (i.e. novel and useful) game designs. This particular result emphasizes the relevance of research on HHS innovation and shows that user designers from the HHS are able to conduct collective development work more effectively than teams of professional designers.

Keywords: Team creativity; User innovation; Free innovation; Household sector; Knowledge diversity; Information processing; Shared mental models JEL: L20, L67, O30, O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:50:y:2021:i:8:s0048733320302481

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2020.104174

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