Tag Archives: Innovation

We’ll get back to you. Or not.

Posted on January 17, 2019 by Eugene Ivanov

During my time at InnoCentive, there was a job I and my colleagues hated the most: collecting clients’ feedback to contributions by the members of the InnoCentive crowd. The clients would post a problem to the InnoCentive website, and a … Continue reading →

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A board game

Posted on November 5, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

Blaming the CEOs for all real and imaginable transgressions is a common thing these days. I’m not an exception myself: on more than one occasion, I argued that all major problems of the corporate innovation process stem from the lackluster … Continue reading →

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Freedom to innovate

Posted on July 22, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

In one of my recent posts, I listed specific socioeconomic factors that favor or obstruct corporate innovation. Some of them, such as termination or compensation policies and the way organizations treat their employees, are in full control of the organizations … Continue reading →

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A sober truth about drunk people

Posted on June 17, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

Harvard Business Review is a serious periodical not known for publishing frivolous content. Yet the tone of one of its features, “Professor X, defend your research,” in the latest (May-June 2018) issue, was far from academic. Defending his research was … Continue reading →

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Innovation: for and against

Posted on April 28, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

I like Jeff Bezos’ line: “Good intentions don’t work, mechanisms do.” To me, it sounds like a full support of my conviction that endless talks about establishing a “culture of innovation” is a distraction, rather than an enabler, in fostering … Continue reading →

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Innovation “quid pro quo”: firms that treat workers better are more innovative

Posted on March 22, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

In my previous post, I described studies showing that giving stock option grants to both executive and non-executive employees fosters innovation, which points to the important role compensation plays in defining corporate innovation performance. However, compensation is only one factor … Continue reading →

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Innovate today, get paid tomorrow

Posted on March 7, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

Theoretical analysis conducted by Gustavo Manso in 2011 suggests that the optimal incentives motivating employees to innovate must include a combination of tolerance for failures in the short term and reward for success in the long. Tolerance for early failures allows … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing “in reverse”: asking crowds to ask questions

Posted on February 27, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

It’s important to understand that crowdsourcing is first and foremost a question, a question that you ask a large and, ideally, diversified crowd of people. And for as long as it’s well-thought-out, properly defined, and clearly articulated, it doesn’t really matter … Continue reading →

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Crowdsourcing 2.0

Posted on February 15, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

I like to argue, only half-jokingly, that crowdsourcing is very simple. It consists of only two components: a question and a crowd—a question that you present to a crowd and a crowd that you assemble to answer this question. And … Continue reading →

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Are you innovating? We won’t be paying you today!

Posted on February 12, 2018 by Eugene Ivanov

A solid body of evidence, from both controlled laboratory experiments and field studies, shows that compensation based on the pay-for-performance (P-f-P) principle—when individuals receive a fixed percentage of the profits resulted from their activities–is effective in inducing higher levels of … Continue reading →

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