FROM HOW FAR AWAY DO YOU LOOK? THE INTERACTION OF PERSPECTIVE TAKING AND OUTSIDERSHIP ON OPPORTUNITY IDENTIFICATION
Type
conference lecture
Date Issued
2024-06-09
Author(s)
Abstract
Principal Topic
Perspective taking is such an important cognitive trait for knowledge integration that it has been touted an organizational capability. Individuals who engage in perspective taking, or imagining the world from another’s vantage point, identify higher quality entrepreneurial opportunities, they are more motivated to follow through with their suggestions, and they receive higher praise from whoever evaluates their work. From scholarship in psychology, we also know about that perspective taking influences creativity, team performance, and innovation efforts
Yet, entrepreneurship scholars are still at the beginning of understanding this cognitive trait’s full potential. While first evidence suggests that perspective taking impacts opportunity identification, previous work in this area has not accounted for social embeddedness in this relationship. However, without understanding the social embeddedness of the perspective taker (i.e. outsider or insider) we leave a decisive moderator unaccounted for. This is costly, considering how much more helpful perspective takers from the right position might be in identifying venture opportunities.
The social embeddedness literature provides a natural theoretical lens to address this topic, because studying the effects of perspective taking is an acknowledgement that not everyone sees the world the same way. Individuals make decisions within their own social context. Perspective taking is also inherently social. Considering another’s viewpoint has been shown to decrease the gap between self and the other whose perspective is being taken, thereby arguably fostering a
deeper embeddedness. Previous research has shown that both the configuration and the quality of
an individual’s social relationships influence individual perspectives and opportunity identification is influenced by the interactions of the actor and the social context.
Going beyond the main relationship between perspective taking and opportunity identification, this research introduces the moderating effect of an individual’s social embeddedness (relative positioning towards the focal ventures) and differentiates the conditions under which perspective taking from someone nearby vs from someone more remote is most beneficial for opportunity identification.
Methods
We present three randomized experiments on perspective taking in 4 studies. Studies 1 and 2 used a within-subjects design for participants to suggest entrepreneurial opportunities, before and after a perspective taking intervention. Study 1 focused on organizational insiders, relying on 97 employees from diverse industries who identified a total of 315 entrepreneurial opportunities for their employers.
Study 2 utilized a sample of 42 organizational outsiders who completed the experiment as hypothetical consultants, identifying a total of 169 opportunities for a new venture. In both studies opportunities were evaluated by independent judges for their novelty and usefulness. We conducted hierarchical linear modeling on all samples to reflect the nested structure of opportunities within individual opportunity providers. The data analysis for Studies 1 and 2 are complete.
Study 3 features insiders and outsiders together in the same design along a continuum of social embeddedness. It relies on a between-subjects experiment design asking a sample of 100 individuals from the general US working population to identify opportunities for a venture in the fishing industry after random assignment to either a treatment (relevant video and relevant writing exercise) or a control group (unrelated video and unrelated writing exercise).
Study 4 replicates study 3 in the healthcare context, asking members of the general public for opportunity identification in hospitals. This ensures consistency yet offer generalizability. The proposed opportunities were evaluated using the consensual assessment technique by two experts in the respective fields based on novelty and usefulness, as well as other important new venture quality metrics including desirability, feasibility, and alignment.
Results
In Study 1 of organizational insiders, we find a substantial and significant (Beta=.195, p=0.027) relationship between insider perspective taking and the identification of useful opportunities. There was only a marginally significant relationship between perspective taking and the novelty of opportunities identified by organizational insiders (Beta=.158, p=0.057). A two-sample t-test confirmed the difference in means between opportunity novelty (mean= 3.45) and usefulness (mean= 4.40) among organizational insiders (p= 0.000).
In Study 2 of organizational outsiders, we find the relationship between outsider perspective taking and novelty of opportunities is positive and significant (Beta=0.793, p=0.000), while there is not significant relationship between outsider perspective taking and opportunity usefulness. Data analysis for Study 3 examining both organizational insiders and outsiders in the same study will be complete in November 2023.
Results suggest that perspective taking among organizational insiders is beneficial for
identifying useful opportunities, while organizational outsiders use their perspective taking
abilities to identify novel opportunities. Our work provides the theoretical and empirical distinction between different degrees of social embeddedness as influential on the type of innovative value that perspective taking can offer. This allows a more nuanced way to measure and influence the effects we might expect to emerge from perspective taking. This can then guide researchers to resolve tensions, such as not always seeing a strong relationship between a particular intervention and the quantity or quality of opportunities identified, and perspective taking not always leading to the highest quality new venture ideas in comparison to other future-oriented processes.
Perspective taking is such an important cognitive trait for knowledge integration that it has been touted an organizational capability. Individuals who engage in perspective taking, or imagining the world from another’s vantage point, identify higher quality entrepreneurial opportunities, they are more motivated to follow through with their suggestions, and they receive higher praise from whoever evaluates their work. From scholarship in psychology, we also know about that perspective taking influences creativity, team performance, and innovation efforts
Yet, entrepreneurship scholars are still at the beginning of understanding this cognitive trait’s full potential. While first evidence suggests that perspective taking impacts opportunity identification, previous work in this area has not accounted for social embeddedness in this relationship. However, without understanding the social embeddedness of the perspective taker (i.e. outsider or insider) we leave a decisive moderator unaccounted for. This is costly, considering how much more helpful perspective takers from the right position might be in identifying venture opportunities.
The social embeddedness literature provides a natural theoretical lens to address this topic, because studying the effects of perspective taking is an acknowledgement that not everyone sees the world the same way. Individuals make decisions within their own social context. Perspective taking is also inherently social. Considering another’s viewpoint has been shown to decrease the gap between self and the other whose perspective is being taken, thereby arguably fostering a
deeper embeddedness. Previous research has shown that both the configuration and the quality of
an individual’s social relationships influence individual perspectives and opportunity identification is influenced by the interactions of the actor and the social context.
Going beyond the main relationship between perspective taking and opportunity identification, this research introduces the moderating effect of an individual’s social embeddedness (relative positioning towards the focal ventures) and differentiates the conditions under which perspective taking from someone nearby vs from someone more remote is most beneficial for opportunity identification.
Methods
We present three randomized experiments on perspective taking in 4 studies. Studies 1 and 2 used a within-subjects design for participants to suggest entrepreneurial opportunities, before and after a perspective taking intervention. Study 1 focused on organizational insiders, relying on 97 employees from diverse industries who identified a total of 315 entrepreneurial opportunities for their employers.
Study 2 utilized a sample of 42 organizational outsiders who completed the experiment as hypothetical consultants, identifying a total of 169 opportunities for a new venture. In both studies opportunities were evaluated by independent judges for their novelty and usefulness. We conducted hierarchical linear modeling on all samples to reflect the nested structure of opportunities within individual opportunity providers. The data analysis for Studies 1 and 2 are complete.
Study 3 features insiders and outsiders together in the same design along a continuum of social embeddedness. It relies on a between-subjects experiment design asking a sample of 100 individuals from the general US working population to identify opportunities for a venture in the fishing industry after random assignment to either a treatment (relevant video and relevant writing exercise) or a control group (unrelated video and unrelated writing exercise).
Study 4 replicates study 3 in the healthcare context, asking members of the general public for opportunity identification in hospitals. This ensures consistency yet offer generalizability. The proposed opportunities were evaluated using the consensual assessment technique by two experts in the respective fields based on novelty and usefulness, as well as other important new venture quality metrics including desirability, feasibility, and alignment.
Results
In Study 1 of organizational insiders, we find a substantial and significant (Beta=.195, p=0.027) relationship between insider perspective taking and the identification of useful opportunities. There was only a marginally significant relationship between perspective taking and the novelty of opportunities identified by organizational insiders (Beta=.158, p=0.057). A two-sample t-test confirmed the difference in means between opportunity novelty (mean= 3.45) and usefulness (mean= 4.40) among organizational insiders (p= 0.000).
In Study 2 of organizational outsiders, we find the relationship between outsider perspective taking and novelty of opportunities is positive and significant (Beta=0.793, p=0.000), while there is not significant relationship between outsider perspective taking and opportunity usefulness. Data analysis for Study 3 examining both organizational insiders and outsiders in the same study will be complete in November 2023.
Results suggest that perspective taking among organizational insiders is beneficial for
identifying useful opportunities, while organizational outsiders use their perspective taking
abilities to identify novel opportunities. Our work provides the theoretical and empirical distinction between different degrees of social embeddedness as influential on the type of innovative value that perspective taking can offer. This allows a more nuanced way to measure and influence the effects we might expect to emerge from perspective taking. This can then guide researchers to resolve tensions, such as not always seeing a strong relationship between a particular intervention and the quantity or quality of opportunities identified, and perspective taking not always leading to the highest quality new venture ideas in comparison to other future-oriented processes.
Language
English (United States)
Publisher
Babson College Entrepreneurship Research Conference