A Study on the Acceptance of Computer-Supported Morphological Analysis

Ideation and innovation can be supported by more or less formalized creativity methods such as brainstorming or morphological analysis. While previous studies have shown increased productivity with computer-supported versions of such methods, their paper-based variants still largely prevail because of non-performance-related factors. We conducted a study with 23 well-motivated and creative participants ideating on hypothetical business ideas using morphological analysis and found that -- in contrast to other studies -- software support was largely preferred over paper. This might partly be attributed to the more rigid structure of this method, but also to specific benefits of the software such as anonymity. The results of our study raise interesting questions for further investigation.