Fiona Schweitzer

Innovation politics impact the development and introduction of innovations, yet knowledge about the influence of specific political behavior or behavioral patterns remains blurred. Based on a literature review and the articles in this Special Issue, we propose a three‐part framework that identifies the building blocks of political behavior in innovation: what motivates actors to be political, the different types of political actors, and the effect of various political behaviors on innovation outcomes. Emphasizing the evolving landscape of innovation politics, the framework aims to highlight research gaps and guide future studies toward improving our understanding of the functional and dysfunctional aspects of innovation politics.

Idea screening is crucial as it must select the most promising ideas that are best suited to increase front‐end success. Although paradox theory indicates that learning tensions characterize the evaluation and screening of idea creativity, we know little about how idea screeners navigate through the associated competing demands. In response, we investigate the effects of idea screeners' paradoxical thinking on the assessment of the creativity of ideas as well as its motivational antecedents of paradoxical thinking. By analyzing a survey ( N = 326) and an experiment ( N = 292), we show that paradoxical thinking increases front‐end success and both dimensions of idea creativity (encompassing meaningfulness and novelty). In turn, by creating a motivational context (comprising decision autonomy, encouragement to take risks, and tolerance for mistakes), firms can provide the antecedents to adopt paradoxical thinking. Our study contributes to and extends the literature on screening idea creativity and paradox theory.