Is it substantive or just symbolic? Understanding innovation theater in organisations: The case of technology-based innovation

Innovation is regarded as a critical asset for organisations. Nevertheless, existing research indicates that firms frequently engage in superficial or theatrical activities when attempting to develop technology-based innovations. Some critics argue that technology-based innovation has become a buzzword or part of organisational hypocrite. This phenomenon is referred to as ‘innovation theatre’. This creates a tension between the growing willingness to innovate and the reasons and methods by which organisations engage in theatre, which has received little attention in the literature. We investigate how and why innovation theater occurs using an inductive approach and the theoretical lenses of symbolic actions. We theorize that organisations theatralise technology-based innovation by engaging in hybrid and internal symbolic activities that have no impact on the innovation process but are highly visible to communicate and legitimise organisations in the face of external pressures to innovate. We found that this is caused by hard, soft, and legitimacy drivers. Our study contributes to the literature by expanding our understanding of an overlooked phenomenon, introducing a model that explains why and how it occurs and connecting the symbolic action literature with technology-based innovation, which opens the door for future research. It also has significant implications for how companies could handle the issue at hand.