Deviance and Innovation:

Reconsideration of Deviant Behavior in the Innovation Process

Abstract

Anecdotal evidence has argued that informal and illegitimate activities hidden from organizations and managers contribute to innovation. In this review, we summarize existing research on such activities, which is called bootlegging or creative deviance, and suggest directions for future research. This research stream focuses on the following situation: though organizations give employees a certain amount of freedom to generate ideas, employees do not have the resources to demonstrate the importance and feasibility of the ideas to receive further official resource allocation. It is often naively believed that deviance fosters innovation, however, research has not been sufficiently accumulated, and it is unclear what role they will play in actual management practice. We point out three major problems and indicate the future direction: (1) assumptions regarding the subject of deviant behavior, (2) context in which the subject of deviant behavior is placed, and (3) manageability of deviant behavior or deviants. These points are considered necessary to examine the significance of deviant behavior in a more realistic context.