Title:
When it Fails Right: A Learning-Based Investigation of the Effect of Failure and Career Tenure on Creativity
When it Fails Right: A Learning-Based Investigation of the Effect of Failure and Career Tenure on Creativity
Author(s)
Zhu-Ireland, Jiani
Advisor(s)
Shalley, Christina E.
Kim, Eugene
Kim, Eugene
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Abstract
Drawing from experiential learning theories and research on exploration-exploitation, I develop a learning-based perspective of how people revise their knowledge structures after experiencing failure, which affects their subsequent creativity. I theorize that individuals with different pre-existing knowledge structures, reflected by the length of their career tenure, learn differently following failure. Specifically, individuals later in their careers are more likely to learn through revising and refining existing knowledge after experiencing failure because of the high complexity and low flexibility of their knowledge structures. Conversely, individuals earlier in their careers are more likely to learn through pursuing new knowledge after experiencing failure due to the low complexity and high flexibility of their knowledge structures. Furthermore, I develop a two-phase longitudinal model to examine how failure and the two types of learning influence initial and long-term creativity and how career tenure influences these processes. I test my hypotheses in a setting suited to the research question: the science-fiction novel field. Results show that after experiencing a failure, authors with longer (vs. shorter) career tenure are more likely to engage in exploitation (vs. exploration), even though exploitation harms their creativity both immediately and in the long run. This dissertation contributes to the literature on creativity, career tenure, and learning from failure.
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Date Issued
2023-12-05
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Text
Resource Subtype
Dissertation