I Can Do That Alone…or Not? How Idea Generators Juggle Between the Pros and Cons of Teamwork

The advantages of working with a team to develop an idea are well established, but surprisingly, little is known about why some idea generators ignore these advantages by developing their ideas alone. To answer this question, we study two important tradeoffs. First, working with a team provides access to additional resources but also leads to increased coordination costs. Second, sharing the risks and costs of developing an idea necessitates sharing the potential rewards of a successful idea. We use unique data on idea generators and their submission of ideas to an innovation program in a large European company between 1996 and 2008 to show how the two different trade-offs affect the decision of idea generators to collaborate with a team