WHAT DO WE HAVE IN-COMMON? OVERCOMING THE NOT-INVENTED-HERE SYNDROME THROUGH RECATEGORISATION

Marion A. Weissenberger-Eibl and Tim Hampel
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Marion A. Weissenberger-Eibl: Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT), Chair of Innovation and Technology Management, Fritz-Erler-Str. 1-3, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany2Fraunhofer Institute of Systems and Innovation Research (ISI), Breslauer Straße 48, 76139 Karlsruhe, Germany
Tim Hampel: Karlsruher Institute of Technology (KIT), Chair of Innovation and Technology Management, Fritz-Erler-Str. 1-3, 76133 Karlsruhe, Germany

International Journal of Innovation Management (ijim), 2021, vol. 25, issue 06, 1-33

Abstract: The not-invented-here (NIH) syndrome describes a negatively-shaped attitude of employees towards externally generated knowledge. Despite being cited as one of the largest barriers in the transfer of external knowledge, empirical evidence on interventions to overcome NIH remains scarce. To address this research gap, we design a brief and specific recategorisational-intervention on basis of the common in-group identity model in order to change employees’ attitudes towards external knowledge directly. Additionally, we take into account the effects of affirmations as a frequently mentioned countermeasure to NIH and also investigate the role of dual identities in recategorisation. To test our hypothesis, we conducted a large field experiment with a total of 1,097 employees within a multinational organisation. Results revealed that (I) organisational identification and status are positively related to higher levels of NIH, (II) a recategorisational-intervention completely removes the NIH bias and leads to a significant increase in the evaluation of external knowledge.

Keywords: Not-invented-here syndrome; open innovation; knowledge transfer; attitude change; decision-making biases (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1142/S1363919621500705

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