Navigating Through Paradoxes: The Influence of Paradoxical Thinking on Idea Screening

Idea screening is crucial as it must select the ‘right’ new product development (NPD) ideas that are best suited to increase front-end and NPD success. Given the limited resources, high levels of uncertainty, and competing demands of the front end, idea screeners must cope with learning tensions when assessing the creativity of ideas. However, the literature tends to neglect the receiving side of creativity, namely idea screeners. This gap is problematic since idea screeners vary in coping with learning tensions and, then, fuel either innovation or counterproductive reactions. In response, we investigate the effects of idea screeners’ paradoxical thinking on the assessment of the creativity of ideas and front-end success. Further, we research the motivational antecedents of paradoxical thinking. By analyzing a survey (N= 326) and an experiment (N= 292), we show that paradoxical thinking increases front-end success, idea meaningfulness, and idea novelty. In turn, by creating a motivational context (comprising decision autonomy, encouragement to take risks, and tolerance for mistakes), firms can motivate idea screeners to apply paradoxical thinking. In addition, product complexity positively moderates the positive relationship between the motivational context and paradoxical thinking. Our study contributes to and extends the literature on the front end and on creativity. Its findings show how paradoxical thinking can improve the outcomes of idea screening and how firms, by adopting paradoxical thinking, can manage idea screeners to synthesize learning tensions.