Purpose

This paper aims to empirically investigate how cognitive biases influence employees' product creativity (EPC) and related product performance. In particular, the paper primarily studies (1) the direct effect of employees' implicit creativity – based on five cognitive biases – and explicit creativity on EPC; and (2) the mediating role of coworkers' heuristic transfer between shared leadership and EPC.

Design/methodology/approach

Data have been obtained from big Italian manufacturing technology firms through a series of online questionnaires that resulted in 555 answers from R&D employees and their direct managers, who are, respectively, involved and responsible for the proposal of manufacturing technology products. The developed four theoretical hypotheses have been tested through correlation analysis, hierarchical regression, mediation analysis and structured equation modelling.

Findings

Cognitive biases positively influence EPC in manufacturing technology firms, leading to positive product performance. In particular, implicit creative personality better predicts EPC than explicit creative personality; whilst, shared leadership leads to a cognitive convergence among co-workers through the spread of heuristics that positively influence EPC.

Originality/value

The originality of this work lies in having: (1) investigated the influence of cognitive biases in creativity, (2) hypothesized and proved that co-workers' heuristic transfer mediates the relationship between shared leadership and EPC; (3) conducted the first specific study on employees' creativity in manufacturing technology firms; and (4) first implemented the implicit creative personality measurement, apart from those who conceptualized it.

中文翻译：

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认知偏见对员工的产品创造力和产品绩效的影响：来自意大利制造技术公司的证据

目的

本文旨在实证研究认知偏差如何影响员工的产品创造力（EPC）和相关产品绩效。特别是，本文主要研究（1）基于五个认知偏差的员工内隐创造力和外在创造力对EPC的直接影响；（2）同事在共享领导和EPC之间的启发式转换的中介作用。

设计/方法/方法

数据是通过一系列在线调查问卷从意大利大型制造技术公司获得的，得出了555名来自研发人员及其直接经理的答案，他们分别参与并负责制造技术产品的建议。通过相关性分析，层次回归，中介分析和结构化方程建模，对已开发的四个理论假设进行了检验。

发现

认知偏差会对制造技术公司的EPC产生积极影响，从而带来积极的产品性能。尤其是，隐性创意人格比显性创意人格更好地预测了EPC。同时，共享的领导能力会通过启发性方法的传播而在同事之间实现认知融合，从而对EPC产生积极的影响。

创意/价值

这项工作的独创性在于：（1）研究了认知偏见对创造力的影响，（2）进行了假设，并证明了同事的启发式转移介导了共享领导与EPC之间的关系；（3）对制造技术公司的员工创造力进行了首次专门研究；（4）除了将其概念化的人之外，首先实施了隐含的创造性人格测度。