A Multi-Perspective Investigation of the Innovation Process: Dynamics, Regulation, and Integration of Concepts

This dissertation provides insight into how individuals and teams address the complex and dynamic nature of innovation processes. Focusing on affect and self-regulation, the dissertation investigates how and why regulation efforts of individuals and teams may be beneficial for both innovative activities (i.e., idea generation and implementation) and innovative strategies (i.e., exploration and exploitation). Further, it addresses the issue of conceptual variety in innovation research and examines to what extent innovative activities and innovative strategies as different concepts used in innovation research may be interwoven. The dissertation is based on a literature review on the relationship between individual-level affect and innovation, and on three empirical studies. Two of these studies, a longitudinal field study with work teams and a laboratory study with student teams, examine the association between team regulatory focus and innovation. The third study, a qualitative interview study with founders and facilitators of innovation processes (i.e., coaches, trainers, consultants), explores how far innovative activities and innovative strategies are interdependent concepts. Most importantly, the empirical findings provide insight about the associations between team regulatory focus and both innovative activities and strategies. For example, the field study results suggest a dynamic interplay of cognitive and affective constructs that explains the relationship between team regulatory focus and innovative strategies. Considering the conceptual level, the findings of this dissertation emphasize that innovative activities and innovative strategies are interwoven, and that the relative importance of innovative strategies also shifts in the course of an innovation project. Overall, the findings underline both the complexity and dynamics that individuals and teams are faced with in innovation processes. In sum, the dissertation mainly addresses the fields of innovation dynamics, individual-level and team-level regulation of affect and behavior, and the construct clarity of innovation and related facets.