Towards A Theoretical Understanding of Creative Concept Screening in Engineering Design Industry
Open Access
- Author:
- Zheng, Xuan
- Graduate Program:
- Industrial Engineering
- Degree:
- Doctor of Philosophy
- Document Type:
- Dissertation
- Date of Defense:
- May 24, 2019
- Committee Members:
- Scarlett Rae Miller, Dissertation Advisor/Co-Advisor
Scarlett Rae Miller, Committee Chair/Co-Chair
Janis P Terpenny, Committee Member
Ling Rothrock, Committee Member
Kathryn Jablokow, Outside Member - Keywords:
- Concept Screening
Risk-Taking
Ownership Bias
Engineering Design Industry
Creativity
Creative Climate - Abstract:
- All innovations begin with creative ideas. However, in order for a creative idea to make it to market, it has to go through many decision “gates” where human decision makers determine which ideas to filter and which to promote. However, people have been said to have a bias against creative ideas due to the risks associated with endorsing novel concepts. While previous work has suggested that these screening decisions may be impacted by the decision makers’ bias towards their own ideas (ownership bias), their tolerance for risk (risk attitude), their position within the organization, or the creative climate of their organization, there have been limited investigations into these factors in the design industry. This is problematic because poor concept screening practices in the design industry can lead to great expenses including redesign costs, production postponement, and product failure. As such, a systematic understanding of the factors that impact decision- making in the front-end of the design process is needed, as without this knowledge we do not know how to support decision-making in order to boost the consideration of creative ideas. The purpose of this dissertation was to develop a theoretical understanding of the factors that could potentially influence professional concept screening practices in the engineering design industry through a series of design studies including naturalistic and experimental environments. Specifically, the goals of this dissertation were to: 1) explore the role of ownership bias in professional concept screening, 2) understand the impact of individual attributes, roles in the design process, and creative climate on professionals’ preferences for creative ideas and risk-taking in the fuzzy front end of the design process, 3) articulate the types of risk design professionals face in the design process, and 4) identify similarities and differences in the criteria used to screen design ideas between professionals in a naturalistic and experimental settings. This was achieved through online surveys, interviews, workshops, and participatory ethnographic studies with a total number of 145 design professionals. The knowledge gained from this dissertation contributes to a systematic understanding of professional concept screening practices and sheds light on individual, job, and environmental factors that impact these practices. This understanding can be used by researchers and practitioners to develop interventions or decision support tools in the fuzzy front end of the design process to encourage creative risk-taking and encourage the consideration of creative ideas.