Sub-theme 45: Market Spaces, Agency, and Creative Rationality
Type
conference contribution
Date Issued
2024-07-04
Author(s)
Abstract
The prevailing paradigm of managerial choice and decision-making – from both the objectivist behavioral school and the interpretivist sensemaking perspectives – is of a decision-making process laden with cognitive myopia and biases due to bounded rationality (Simon, 1947; Cyert & March, 1963); and post-hoc meaning-making due to retrospective sensemaking (Weick, 1979).
Over the years, scholars have expressed dissatisfaction with this prevailing paradigm as it casts managers as backward-looking (Gavetti et. al., 2012) and predominantly “passive” with regards to the environment (Farjoun, 2008) – a concern shared by fields like psychology as well (Seligman, Railton, Baumeister, & Sripada, 2013). Our view is that whereas prevailing perspectives capture default/average managerial behavior, they do not account for the type of forward-looking processes associated with leadership (March, 2009).
Perhaps as a consequence, in the past decade, scholars have initiated studies on the origins of great (Gavetti & Porac, 2018), shaping-oriented (Pontikes & Rindova, 2020), value-creating (Felin & Zenger, 2017), and novel strategies (Cattani, Deichmann, & Ferriani, 2022). These efforts have shed light on a wide range of forward-looking cognitive processes–problem formulation (Bharadwaj, Mahoney, & Nickerson, 2022), theorizing (Felin & Zenger, 2017), ideals (Schilling, 2018), imagination (e.g., Patvardhan and Ramachandran, 2020; Beckert, 2022; Thompson & Byrne, 2022; Rindova & Martins, 2022), design-thinking (Liedtka, 2000; Rindova & Martins, 2021) and so on.
Collectively, the above insights on the constructive aspects of managerial agency point to a fundamental shift in the kind of rationality associated with decision-making – from formal rationality that is inevitably bounded (Simon, 1955) and “adaptive” rationality (Gigernzer, 2001), to creative rationality (Forest, 2009; Patvardhan, 2014; Rindova & Martins, 2021). By creative rationality, we refer to a general approach to decision-making where the criterion for rationality is novelty, rather than efficiency (“formal rationality”) or adaptation (“adaptive rationality”). Whereas in formal rationality, decision-makers evaluate given alternatives by analyzing and comparing expected outcomes and make choices that align with prevailing norms; In creative rationality, decision-makers actively generate new alternatives, often disrupting the prevailing logic, enabling unconventional and transformative solutions.
We invite scholars studying forward-looking phenomena (innovation, creativity, market creation, industry formation, entrepreneurship, design thinking, and so on) across domains (e.g., organization theory, organizational behavior, strategic management, entrepreneurship), and theoretical perspectives (e.g., evolutionary theory, behavioral school, sensemaking) to submit original paper proposals that throw light on elements of a framework of creative rationality – including the ontology, motivation, heuristics, cognition, and emotion, associated with such a form of rationality.
Related questions include:
Cognitive Processes: What cognitive processes underlie activities such as path creation, opportunity creation, design thinking, creativity, and innovation? How do individuals think, reason, and problem-solve when embracing creative rationality?
Motivation for Novelty: What motivates individuals and organizations to pursue novelty and engage in creative and innovative endeavors?
Sources of Novelty: Where do novel ideas come from? What are the sources of novelty that fuel creative rationality?
Heuristics: What heuristics or mental shortcuts are involved in the generation of creative and innovative solutions? How do decision-makers navigate the complexity of creative processes?
Emotional Processes: What emotional factors are associated with innovation and creation? How do emotions impact the decision-making process in the pursuit of novelty?
Risk Assessment: How do innovators understand and assess risk when venturing into uncharted territory? What strategies do they employ to manage uncertainty while pursuing creative rationality?
Over the years, scholars have expressed dissatisfaction with this prevailing paradigm as it casts managers as backward-looking (Gavetti et. al., 2012) and predominantly “passive” with regards to the environment (Farjoun, 2008) – a concern shared by fields like psychology as well (Seligman, Railton, Baumeister, & Sripada, 2013). Our view is that whereas prevailing perspectives capture default/average managerial behavior, they do not account for the type of forward-looking processes associated with leadership (March, 2009).
Perhaps as a consequence, in the past decade, scholars have initiated studies on the origins of great (Gavetti & Porac, 2018), shaping-oriented (Pontikes & Rindova, 2020), value-creating (Felin & Zenger, 2017), and novel strategies (Cattani, Deichmann, & Ferriani, 2022). These efforts have shed light on a wide range of forward-looking cognitive processes–problem formulation (Bharadwaj, Mahoney, & Nickerson, 2022), theorizing (Felin & Zenger, 2017), ideals (Schilling, 2018), imagination (e.g., Patvardhan and Ramachandran, 2020; Beckert, 2022; Thompson & Byrne, 2022; Rindova & Martins, 2022), design-thinking (Liedtka, 2000; Rindova & Martins, 2021) and so on.
Collectively, the above insights on the constructive aspects of managerial agency point to a fundamental shift in the kind of rationality associated with decision-making – from formal rationality that is inevitably bounded (Simon, 1955) and “adaptive” rationality (Gigernzer, 2001), to creative rationality (Forest, 2009; Patvardhan, 2014; Rindova & Martins, 2021). By creative rationality, we refer to a general approach to decision-making where the criterion for rationality is novelty, rather than efficiency (“formal rationality”) or adaptation (“adaptive rationality”). Whereas in formal rationality, decision-makers evaluate given alternatives by analyzing and comparing expected outcomes and make choices that align with prevailing norms; In creative rationality, decision-makers actively generate new alternatives, often disrupting the prevailing logic, enabling unconventional and transformative solutions.
We invite scholars studying forward-looking phenomena (innovation, creativity, market creation, industry formation, entrepreneurship, design thinking, and so on) across domains (e.g., organization theory, organizational behavior, strategic management, entrepreneurship), and theoretical perspectives (e.g., evolutionary theory, behavioral school, sensemaking) to submit original paper proposals that throw light on elements of a framework of creative rationality – including the ontology, motivation, heuristics, cognition, and emotion, associated with such a form of rationality.
Related questions include:
Cognitive Processes: What cognitive processes underlie activities such as path creation, opportunity creation, design thinking, creativity, and innovation? How do individuals think, reason, and problem-solve when embracing creative rationality?
Motivation for Novelty: What motivates individuals and organizations to pursue novelty and engage in creative and innovative endeavors?
Sources of Novelty: Where do novel ideas come from? What are the sources of novelty that fuel creative rationality?
Heuristics: What heuristics or mental shortcuts are involved in the generation of creative and innovative solutions? How do decision-makers navigate the complexity of creative processes?
Emotional Processes: What emotional factors are associated with innovation and creation? How do emotions impact the decision-making process in the pursuit of novelty?
Risk Assessment: How do innovators understand and assess risk when venturing into uncharted territory? What strategies do they employ to manage uncertainty while pursuing creative rationality?
Language
English
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Event Title
40th EGOS Colloquium
Event Location
Milan
Event Date
July 4-6, 2024
Contact Email Address
martina.montauti@unisg.ch