• Korean Management Science Review
• /
• v.26 no.2
• /
• pp.37-59
• /
• 2009

Electronic brainstorming (EBS) to improve the process and outcomes of group decision making is an artifact of Information Systems legacy. Despite three decades of research with EBS in an effort to become a key resource of organizational performance, its performance when compared to that of nominal is inconclusive because of the recent debate over its usefulness in terms of productivity. Subsequent researchers have directed our attention to the re-examination of cognitive stimulation, which is considered the major benefit in computer-based idea generation, to explain the performance singularity in computer-based groups. While both cognitive and motivational factors that moderate and mediate the group-interaction process remain unexplored, individual differences that are tightly linked to creative behavior have been largely ignored to account for the discrepancy in performance. Since simulations have been widely used in situations where an outcome does not meet the assumptions, the notion of a group simulator and detailed simulation mechanisms are introduced to examine the potential effects of individual differences on the performance of computer-based idea generation groups. In addition, two prior studies that empirically explored cognitive mechanisms with the group simulator are showcased along with six propositions to initiate future research.

• Journal of Korean Society for Quality Management
• /
• v.36 no.2
• /
• pp.67-84
• /
• 2008

Given the industry's unprecedented attention and dedication of resources to voice recognition, this paper introduces and explores a novel idea generation technique whereby ideas are captured directly through verbalization rather than forcing group members to type ideas. A group simulator was used to measure the idea generation performance of individuals who input ideas verbally or via typing in the context of nominal and interacting groups. The results clearly indicate that verbal input represents a more desirable mechanism in a computer-mediated idea generation environment. Liberating group members from the keyboard produces remarkable performance gains. Verbalizing ideas helps individuals focus on analytical thinking and leverage group member ideas, ultimately facilitating the creation of ideas pools that are vastly superior in terms of quantity and quality. These effects were found across nominal and interacting groups. The implications of these results for future research and the design of technologies are discussed.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.23 no.2
• /
• pp.91-107
• /
• 2014

In computer-mediated idea generation where contributions can be anonymous, the ability to accurately monitor performances is limited, inducing social loafing. Prior research has suggested that social loafing is likely an important factor in reducing task performance. Researchers have theorized that loafing could be minimized if clear performance feedback is provided. Our prior study evidences a substantial performance gain by the provision of real time performance information about who is contributing and who is not. However, our prior study incorporated the quantity feedback only to create a larger pool of ideas based on the long-standing assumption (i.e., quantity breeds quality), not considering the quality feedback. As a result, taking advantage of anonymity in the form of pseudonymity, individuals in almost all groups exhibited a tendency of self-presentation by capitalizing on ideas of which quality was low and even frivolous (i.e., junk comments) toward the later stages of the session. Thus, we have learned that the quantity performance feedback alone does not have enough restrictiveness to consistently control the performance behavior throughout the session. Since a process chart allows participants to monitor process variation by comparing new performance data to past performance data, we incorporated real-time visual process performance feedback to reveal performance histories by connecting the sequence of idea quality scores in a time-series format. Using this environment, a laboratory experiment was conducted with five-member groups that examined the influence of both identifiability (i.e., anonymity versus pseudonymity) and process performance feedback (i.e., yes or no) in a $2{\times}2$ factorial design. The result showed that groups in the process performance feedback treatment outperformed groups in the no feedback treatment. Additionally, process performance feedback and identifiability interacted such that groups in the process performance feedback/pseudonymity treatment had the highest performance. The implications of these findings for future research, as well as the implications for the design of group idea generation procedures are discussed.

• The Journal of Information Systems
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.133-154
• /
• 2015

Purpose This study re-analyzes Jung 2012's data using the time interval based analysis to examine if the process of idea generation is in good currency throughout the ideation sessions. In this way, the relationship between extraversion-introversion personality trait and ideation performance in the context of computer-mediated idea generation can be better understood. Design/methodology/approach A $2{\times}4$ factorial design was used, crossing personality differences (extraversion and introversion) with the degree of stimuli (0, 20, 40, and 80 high-quality ideas). Participants were randomly assigned to one of eight treatment conditions. The group simulator is used to measure individual level performance. The number of unique ideas generated by individuals and the exact time stamp when each idea was submitted were analyzed to compare performances. Findings The results show that introverts' performances significantly drops after about the middle stage of the ideation session, whereas extraverts do not seem to feel time constraints throughout the ideation session, resulting in superior divergent thinking, which is a major key to understand creative productivity in the problem-solving process. Since extraverts tend to yield a larger pool of ideas, another interpretation is that group composition with extraverts compared with introverts may create a logically larger group, which is important to improve the performance of idea generation group.