Reading the Tea Leaves: The Intertwined Roles of Attention and Search in Innovation and Adaptation (session 1212)
STR/TIM/OMT Research Symposium
10:15 AM - 11:45 AM PDT on Monday, 8 August
The relationship between managerial attention and firms' innovation efforts is well-established in the extant literature. However, the relationship between attention and the search for and implementation of new innovations is complex. Despite the clear importance both scholastically and managerially of understanding how attention, search behaviors, and adaptation interrelate, our understanding of the mechanisms through which attention is translated or not translated into action is relatively under-developed. In this symposium, we present four recent studies that have started to unpack this relationship between managerial attention and organizational search and adaptation. The goal of this symposium is to spark interest in the broad cognitive underpinnings of technological adaptation, including how managerial attention translates into search and other innovation- related actions during periods of industry change. During such periods firms must rapidly adapt to a changing environment, and the misallocation of valuable resources, like attention, limits the ability to successfully search for new solutions and eventually adapt to the changing environment. Through this symposium, we will start to both unpack the factors and mechanisms that shape the attention-action relationship as well as deepen our understanding of another explanation as to why incumbent firms may struggle to respond to industry change.
Presented Papers
The Role of Managerial Attention in Shaping Responses to Industry Change
John Eklund; U. of Southern California
Manav Raj; New York U.
Fighting the Fires: Online User Community Conflict, Creator Attention and User-Generated Innovations
Jay (Jinwon) Park; U. of California, Irvine
Seongbin Yoon; U. of California, Irvine
John Joseph; U. of California, Irvine
Brian Amir Ebrahimi; U. of California, Irvine
Regulatory stringency and external R&D investment in the U.S. Electricity Industry
Nilanjana Dutt; Bocconi U.
Colleen Cunningham; London Business School
Talking the Walk: Managerial Attention, Exploration, and Investor Valuation of New Technologies
Dylan Boynton; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
William Ocasio; U. of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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John Eklund
Assistant Professor
University of Southern California
Los Angeles CA
(267) 471-3544
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