Inverse Relationship Found between Propensity to Innovate and Academic Success

Mariia Evdokimova and Anastasia Stepanova, employees of HSE University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences, studied the connection between students’ personal characteristics and their desire to create something new. The researchers have found that students’ propensity to innovate lowers their GPA. The results of the work were published in the preprint ‘Students’ Propensity to Innovate: Correlates, Determinants, and Impact on GPA.’

In the modern world, innovation is one of the main drivers of economic growth. The per capita GDP of countries with more innovative and technological economies tends to be higher and their people wealthier. Innovation refers to any novelties: new things and ideas, as well as the process of their creation and implementation. However, scientists still know little about why some people are more likely to create new things than others. Psychotherapist Sophie Schweizer-Schubert believes that the innovation process in society depends on the personal inclination of each member to innovate and the external conditions that allow people to implement their plans. 

To identify people’s proneness to the new, Michael Kirton, back in the 1970s, developed a questionnaire on which many modern studies are based. The Kirton Questionnaire allows one to understand how people work with information and make decisions. The scientist identified two groups of people: innovators, who strive to solve problems in a non-standard way, and adapters, who want to do tasks better and more competently, and solve them in a precise and structured way.

Researchers from HSE University’s Faculty of Economic Sciences decided to find out how the propensity for innovation (ie, non-standard solutions to problems) is related to students’ academic success and whether there are any factors that make it possible to identify innovators in advance. To do this, they surveyed 203 economics students. Each of them was assessed for their propensity for innovation, desire for new life experiences, creativity, and risk-taking.

 

Innovation was assessed on a 9-point scale. Students who received 0–3 points were included in the ‘adapter’ group, and those who got 4–8 points were included in the ‘innovator’ group. The largest number of respondents—50 people—received 2 points on this scale. In total, according to the survey results, 122 people turned out to be adapters, and 81 were innovators. This propensity was then compared to other characteristics and the students’ GPA. The study found a connection between academic success and personality characteristics, revealing an inverse relationship between the propensity to innovate and academic success.

The most significant personality traits that increase the tendency to innovate are a willingness to take risks, a desire for new life experiences, and a passion for extreme sports. Students with such qualities were more likely to be included in the group of innovators. Most of all, innovativeness was associated with the desire to gain new experiences. Gender differences were also revealed: women were more often in the adapting group, and their propensity for innovation was almost 0.5 points lower. Among adapters, the share of women was 70%, while among innovators, it was only 50%. The scientists also studied the influence of a propensity to innovate on grades. The found that innovators’ average score is usually one point lower on a 10-point scale. The study showed that higher grades are one of the signs that a student is more likely to belong to the adapting type.

From my point of view, innovative students are just not interested in completing assignments 100%, since they do not receive enough moral satisfaction to cover the increasing learning effort, unlike adaptive students, whose satisfaction increases along with a higher score.

Mariia Evdokimova
Lecturer at the School of Finance, Faculty of Economic Sciences, HSE University

This study was one of the first attempts to examine the factors that influence students’ intrinsic propensity for creating new things and show how these characteristics impact their academic performance. The authors note that the work is worth continuing; they surveyed only economics students, and this field, in their opinion, may be less attractive to innovators due to its high popularity and lower risk for a successful future career.

It would be interesting to assess whether the propensity to innovate affects the choice of activity and the life satisfaction score in an adult. I can assume that a significant difference between a person’s propensity to innovate and the propensity to innovate required in their activity will lead to a decrease in happiness and, possibly, wealth.

Mariia Evdokimova
Lecturer at the School of Finance, Faculty of Economic Sciences, HSE University

In future research, we want to link the propensity to innovate with an individual’s personal horizon of vision and planning. And further on, we have planned work that will show the influence of the propensity for innovation and other behavioural characteristics on a person’s ability to make major economic decisions, for example, to run a company.

Anastasia N. Stepanova
Associate Professor at the School of Finance, Faculty of Economic Sciences, HSE University

IQ

March 15