It ain't over till it's over: Adjusting the intensity and conformity of championing efforts after initial failure

Abstract

While past research has shown that championing plays a key role in sheltering and advancing novel ideas towards implementation, relatively little is known about how adversity and failure are dealt with through championing behaviour. The current embedded case study draws from 43 interviews in a large industrial technology organization, examining new product and service development idea pathways. We found four types of championing responses in the 61 instances where initial idea advancement efforts did not bear fruit: lateral shifts, reworking, temporal shifts and moaning. In each of these, the idea was seen as valuable by the developer, but the attribution of initial failure and perceptions of effort-to-performance and performance-to-outcome expectancies varied in distinct combinations of conforming and nonconforming types of championing with varying intensity. Taken together, the results contribute towards understanding the multidimensional nature and temporal dynamics of championing in persisting under adversity by illuminating factors that contribute to championing response type decisions and opportunities to better support idea development efforts in organizations.