‘Innovation good’ is corporate propaganda played out in the innovation theater---their arguments are epistemologically flawed; overcorrect against your cognitive bias.

Granados & Ayala 23, [Cristian Granados (Professor at the Graduate School of Business and at Egade Business School, Master's degree, Doctorate, and Post-Doctorate from the University of Barcelona and the University of Cambridge, Research fellow at HEC Montreal and did a research stay at Harvard Business School), and Yarid Ayala (Research Professor at Egade Business School, Editorial Board of the Journal of Happiness Studies), "Fake It ‘Till You Make It?: The Innovation Theater," Egade Ideas, https://egade.tec.mx/en/egade-ideas/research/fake-it-till-you-make-it-innovation-theater, accessed 6-30-2024, 10/31/23] Mr.Mr.

Innovation is a top priority for companies today: activities such as workshops, innovation programs, labs, or corporate accelerators are increasingly carried out as part of their innovation process. However, these innovation-related activities do not always result in making organizations more innovative.

Such was the case of Theranos, a health technology company founded in 2003 by 19-year-old Elizabeth Holmes. Theranos claimed the development of an innovative device to run blood tests more accurately. With this promise, the company raised more than US $700 million. These claims were later proven to be false. In September 2021, Elizabeth Holmes attended the criminal trial to defend against an indictment of fraud.

This case invokes the term ‘hype’ in reference to overinflated public interest toward a particular technology. This overinflation can be exacerbated by theatrical actions such as narratives, symbols, stories, awards, etc., to gain legitimacy. For example, Holmes was named one of Time’s magazine’s “Time 100 most influential people”, she partnered with influential figures such as Carlos Slim and created a fashionable lab where the ex-vice president Joe Biden was invited for a tour. This case reflects the importance of technological innovation in firms, and at the same time, the negative effects of hype to theatricalize only to gain legitimacy and not to innovate.

Sometimes, organizations pretend to be innovative. The phenomenon of using superficial and trendy activities that have no impact on the innovation process, resulting in futile attempts at innovation is known as ‘innovation theatre’. To investigate how and why innovation theater occurs, we conducted a study using an inductive approach and the theoretical lenses of symbolic actions. The paper “Is it substantive or just symbolic? Understanding innovation theater in organizations: The case of technology-based innovation” (Technovation, 2023), sheds light on the reasons behind the innovation theater.

Based on qualitative and secondary data, we found that organizations attempt to respond to pressure to innovate by only engaging in symbolic activities, which have no bearing on the innovation process but act as mechanisms of legitimation. For example, adopting innovation methods (e.g. contests, lean startup), accelerator programs, trendy technologies (e.g. machine learning, 3D printing), and spending millions advertising such activities with great fanfare may establish a reputation for being an innovative company. However, the extent to which such activities influence the innovation process to deliver deployable new products is unclear.

We found that this occurs as a result of the organization’s hard drivers (e.g. absence of strategy, resources, and capabilities) and soft drivers (e.g. lack of an innovative culture). Accordingly, we propose a model theorizing this phenomenon and a framework for classifying symbolic vs. substantive actions.

Symbolic actions and legitimacy

To acquire resources, technological new ventures need to be perceived as legitimate. One of the primary purposes of symbolic action is to acquire and maintain this legitimacy, especially in new ventures through narratives, stories, memberships, and identity claims. Studies have discovered that when companies attempt to implement new technologies, workers engage in symbolic actions to maintain their status quo and gain legitimacy.