How task instructions impact the creativity of designers and ordinary participants in online idea generation

Online idea generation platforms are increasingly used to generate ideas of innovative products. Crafting the problem statement carefully is a key factor of success, however, the current literature remains limited concerning what kind of task instructions should be used to increase the quality of ideas in online idea generation. This research examines three different types of task instructions. The unbounded task instructions allowed participants generating the ideas they wish without any restriction. The suggestive task instructions indicate domains of ideas that are innovative. The prohibitive task instructions indicate domains of ideas that are not innovative. The impact of these three types of task instructions on creative outcomes is compared through an empirical study on eYeka, a global online idea generation platform. Based on logit models, we found that the task instructions have a significant impact on the creativity of participants. Our result shows that prohibitive task instructions enable the production of the most original ideas whereas suggestive task instructions favor the production of the most feasible and valuable ideas. Unbounded task instructions are mostly found to be inefficient. The implications for the management of online idea generation communities are discussed. 2 " The formulation of a problem is often more essential than its solution, which may be merely a matter of mathematical or experimental. " A. Einstein, L. Infeld in The Evolution of Physics (p.92).