Rethinking ideation: a cognitive approach of innovation lock-ins
Résumé
Some industries are lacking the proposal of truly original new ideas to renew existing products and/or services, despite repeated efforts from all stakeholders to make innovative and original proposals. These situations, called orphan innovation, lead to revisit the contemporary approaches to the study of obstacles in ideation, as orphan innovation is a paradoxical situation. Conventional financial constraints and institutional level are released, the market demand is strong, niche strategies are possible and bold entrepreneurs abound. And yet, the proposals do not fulfill expectations regarding innovation. We advocate in this paper the idea that cognitive sciences can contribute to make sense of this phenomenon. Breaking with the common assumption that individual creativity is constrained by collective mechanisms such as social conformity or inhibition, we argue that there is a need today to rethink the collective action as leverage on the capacity of individuals to generate creative ideas.