The Power of Sharing Failures: The Effects of Failure Disclosure on Exploration Performance

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Chen, Clara Xiaoling; Huang, Xian; Wang, Laura W.
• 署名单位: University of Illinois System; University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Chinese Academy of Sciences; University of Science & Technology of China, CAS
• 刊物名称: ACCOUNTING REVIEW
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0001-4826
• DOI: 10.2308/TAR-2023-0251
• 发表日期: 2025
• 页码: 139-158
• 关键词: CREATIVITY; incentives; management; systems; field

摘要

Creativity-dependent companies often implement failure disclosure programs to encourage employees to publicly disclose failures encountered in exploration activities with a focus on learning. We examine the effects of failure disclosure on employees' exploration performance using an experiment in which participants perform a letter-search task by counting the search letters in each question (i.e., exploitation) or identifying an embedded shortcut that applies to all questions (i.e., exploration). We manipulate two factors: (1) whether participants are encouraged to disclose their failed attempts at finding the shortcut to future participants and (2) whether they are evaluated for their task-related skills. We predict and find failure disclosure increases the likelihood of shortcut identification in the presence of evaluation, and this effect is mitigated in the absence of evaluation. Because evaluation is typically present in natural work settings, our theory and results suggest failure disclosure is an effective mechanism to increase employees' exploration performance.