2025

Sukhov, Alexandre; Sihvonen, Antti; Huck, Jana; Olsson, Lars E.; Netz, Johan

Overview Traditionally idea screening has been understood as a selection process, but recent studies have shown that idea evaluators engage in creative activities during screening. This approach has been conceptualized as generative idea screening. In this study, we analyzed how expert evaluators perform generative screening. By analyzing idea screening situations, we found that experts rely primarily on three types of generative activities that focus on adapting, concretizing, or changing an idea. Innovation managers can use this information to organize and direct generative activities during idea screening. We also discovered four idea screening processes: simple evaluation, simple modification, cyclical modification, and cyclical exploration. Adapting and concretizing an idea are prevalent activities in these four processes, which suggests that generative idea screening is best used for identifying and solving issues related to how an idea is presented and implemented. Practitioners takeaways Generative screening is a creative process companies can use to improve upon initial ideas for innovation. Instead of asking experts to merely improve upon ideas, innovation managers can ask them to adapt the ideas to make them easier to implement; to concretize ideas to make them easier to understand; and/or to change the idea to encourage divergent thinking. Innovation managers can use generative idea screening as input for further ideation and harvest the experts’ creative potential more effectively, rather than solely focusing on identifying the most promising ideas during screening.