Creativity reputation allocation in open and distributed innovation

Abstract

Much of today's creative work crosses organizational borders. This limits the possibilities for directly compensating creative workers. Thus, other forms of reward, such as reputation-building, are necessary. This study builds on the concept of creative reputation (reputation for creativity) and signaling theory. It asks how reputation should be assigned to creative workers to reflect their creative abilities most accurately. We illustrate reputation allocation using the example of the academic system and develop a simple computational model to compare how different reputation allocation mechanisms—varying in how they utilize observable information about creative workers' outcomes—produce reputations for individual creative workers. The insights derived from the model contribute to our understanding of open and distributed innovation systems. They also challenge current practices in evaluating and recruiting creative workers and motivate future research on creative reputation and reputation allocation.