The Misfit Bias

Bryan K. Stroube (), Keyvan Vakili () and Michaël Bikard ()
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Bryan K. Stroube: Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department, London Business School, London NW1 4SA, United Kingdom
Keyvan Vakili: Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department, London Business School, London NW1 4SA, United Kingdom
Michaël Bikard: Strategy Department, INSEAD, F-77305 Fontainebleau, France

Organization Science, 2025, vol. 36, issue 5, 1676-1689

Abstract: Consumers and other audiences often penalize products that combine unrelated elements. In this paper, we document the consequences of that penalty for the evaluation of the elements being combined. Building on the idea that audiences cannot fully disentangle the quality of “fit” between elements from the quality of the elements individually, we argue that audiences are likely to direct their dislike of a misfit product to the individual elements being combined. Using an archival study of the music industry and an online experiment with photographic galleries, we find that evaluations of individual elements (songs, photographs) are influenced by product-level fit (albums, galleries). Elements of misfit products are evaluated less favorably than they would have been otherwise. Moreover, this bias is exacerbated when the evaluation of the whole product is emphasized. We discuss the implications of this “misfit bias” for the innovation, entrepreneurship, and categories literatures.

Keywords: innovation; evaluations; recombination; bias; categories; cultural products; creativity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:inm:ororsc:v:36:y:2025:i:5:p:1676-1689

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