Sophie Quach: "Algorithm supported induction of factors driving idea evaluation time"

Co-author:  Prof. Dr. Christina Raasch

Co-author:   Tim Schweisfurth (TUHH)

New ideas are central to any firm’s innovation activities (Ven, 1986). While many firms have introduced various strategies to generate ideas, the struggle lies in evaluating and selecting the good ideas for implementation (Piezunka & Dahlander, 2014; Reitzig, 2011). Thus far, research on idea evaluation has focused on factors influencing the outcome of such evaluation processes (e.g., Boudreau et al., 2016; Fuchs et al., 2019; Reitzig & Sorenson, 2013; Schweisfurth et al., 2023). This work introduces a new perspective and focusses on the process of idea evaluation. A common observation is that evaluators tend to take too long before they accept or reject an idea. This behavior is what we call “shirking”, which can be very costly for the firm. Shirking delays not only the implementation of an approved idea, but the potential gains or saved costs as well. Moreover, regardless of approval or rejection, the long evaluation times might serve as a sufficient deterrent to employees from submitting more ideas.

To our knowledge, this study is the first to explore when and why evaluators evaluate fast or slow. We address these questions by following the approach of algorithm supported induction (Shrestha et al., 2021), an approach that suggests to apply machine learning algorithms to data in order to develop and test theory. Our article uses data from an internal idea management system of a European manufacturer within the mobility industry.  In specific, we train various machine learning models to predict evaluation time and then use the SHAP value method to infer how each factor contributes to the underlying decision rules of these predictive models (Lundberg & Lee, 2017; Nandlall & Millard, 2020). This allows us to identify patterns when evaluators take more time. By linking these patterns to theory, we form hypotheses to explain our observations. Additionally, we hypothesize why evaluators might take more time. In the second part, we test these hypotheses using a hold-out sample of our data to replicate our findings.

Sophie Quach is a Research Associate at Kühne Logistics University. She has a background in business psychology (B.Sc. at Leuphana University of Lüneburg with a semester abroad at University of Queensland, Australia) and international development (M.A. at Univeristy of Vienna). Sophie finished her PhD in Economics and Social Sciences at the University of Vienna under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Nikolaus Franke.
Her research strives to advance our understanding of how to govern user innovations that are freely revealed as commons. Specifically, Sophie looks at how user innovators and firms can both benefit from their complementary objectives, roles and resources in joint innovation processes. She has presented her work at several peer-reviewed international conferences, including the Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, DRUID, EGOS and OUI. In 2023, she was a visiting scholar at the Max Planck Institute for Innovation and Competition, hosted by Prof. Dietmar Harhoff, PhD.
In addition to her research, Sophie taught a number of project-based classes on undergraduate and graduate level, jointly conducted with multinational firms or research institutions. Amongst others, she conducted technology transfer projects for the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and intrapreneurship projects for RHI Magnesita. Other classes are "Garage", in which students learn to build their own (lean) startup from initial idea to pitching it to investors, Academic Writing and debating classes.
Before starting her academic career, Sophie worked on different projects for the Otto Group; part-time during her undergraduate studies, during which she received the "Otto Group scholarship", including two internships and financial support, as well as full-time in between her undergraduate and graduate studies. Moreover, she gained experience as a workshop instructor for Austrian National Bank (OeNb) and the Vienna Business Agency, as an assistant to the foreign correspondent for South East Asia for the German public broadcasting service (ARD) and as a badminton coach, assisting in activities of the Austrian youth national team.