Please use this form to submit your study for inclusion into our database. It will be checked by a member of the Innovation Growth Lab team, who may be in contact to ask for more information. Your email address * Your name * Title * The name of the study Short summary A laboratory experiment with undergraduate students in a US university explores the effects of intergroup competition and changes in group membership on creativity and collaboration. A brief description of the project's goals and its current state Abstract <p>Integrating and refining social interdependence theory and structural adaptation theory, we examined the effects of intergroup competition on the creativity of 70 four-person groups engaged in two idea generation tasks. We manipulated both group membership change (change, no change) and intergroup competition level (low, intermediate, high). Competition had the expected U-shaped relation with creativity in open (membership change) groups but failed to produce the hypothesized inverted U-shaped pattern in closed (no membership change) groups. In the latter, effects were positive for low to intermediate competition and flat for intermediate to high levels. Within-group collaboration mediated these effects.</p> The full abstract of the study, if available Links http://amj.aom.org/content/53/4/827.full Links to any published papers and related discussions Authors * Affiliations Academic and other institutes that the authors of the study are members of Delivery partner Organisations involved in delivering the trial, if appropriate Year Year Year199419951996199719981999200020012002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014201520162017201820192020202120222023202420252026 Month MonthJanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec Day Day12345678910111213141516171819202122232425262728293031 Journal Journal publishing the study, if available Publication stage * Working Paper Published Ongoing Research Forthcoming Discussion Paper Research theme * Entrepreneurship Innovation Business Growth Country Country or countries where this study took place. Topics What sort of topics does the study cover? Sample attributes Hypotheses / research question Hypothesis 1: Membership change moderates the quadratic effects of intergroup competition on group creativity in such a way that the effects describe an inverted U-shaped function in the case of closed groups and a U-shaped function in the case of open groups. Hypothesis 2: Collaboration in idea generation and decisionmaking mediates the joint quadratic effects of intergroup competition and membership change on group creativity. Sample Trial population and sample selection 280 undergraduate students at a large university in the United States. Participating students were eligible for extra class credits and potential cash prizes. Number of treatment groups Size of treatment groups 10 teams of 4 individuals per treatment group (40 individuals per group). Size of control group Unit of analysis Clustered? Yes No Cluster details Trial attributes Treatment description Groups were assigned two idea generation tasks. Half of the groups experienced a change in switch in group members before the second task. Groups received certain competition manipulations depending on which intergroup competition level they were randomly allocated to. Teams in low intergroup competition were told that to win the prize and have their ideas sent to the associate dean, they must be in the top 50% of groups with the most creative ideas. Teams in intermediate intergroup competition were told they needed to be in the top ten most creative groups whereas those in the high intergroup competition were informed they needed to be the most creative group. Rounds of data collection Baseline data collection and method N/A Data collection method and data collected Evaluation Outcome variables <p>Creativity. Collaboration: Collaborative idea generation, participative decision-making. Manipulation checks: Questions regarding perceptions of intergroup competitiveness.</p> Results <p>Hypothesis 1: Evidence shows partial support for hypothesis 1. Open groups appear to have a significant negative effect on creativity in situations of low intergroup competitiveness while in situations of high intergroup competitiveness open groups have a significant positive effect on creativity. In closed groups, those treated with low intergroup competitiveness demonstrated significantly less creativity than participants treated with intermediate intergroup competitiveness, although for high levels of intergroup competition the effect is not significant. Hypothesis 2: Evidence shows some support to validate hypothesis 2, as collaboration appears to mediate the effects expected in hypothesis 1. These results are, however, based on a reduced sample.</p> Intervention costs Not available. Cost benefit ratio Reference Baer, M., Leenders, R. T. A. J., Oldham, G. R., & Vadera, A. K., 2010. 'Win or Lose the Battle for Creativity: The Power and Perils of Intergroup Competition'. Academy of Management Journal, vol. 53(4), pages 827-845. Citation for use in academic references
