Do designers and managers complement each other? The influence of cognitive style on product performance

Prior research suggests that designers may complement managers in achieving successful innovation outcomes because of their different ways to approach problems and opportunities. Designers have, for example, been ascribed characteristics such as being explorative, future oriented and intuitive, while managers have been described in terms of a preference for exploitation, driven by the past and being rational. There is, however, not much empirical research that examines whether designers and managers indeed think differently and how this affects innovation outcomes. We attempt to fill this gap in the literature by examining how designers' and managers' cognitive styles (in terms of creativity, conformity, and attention to details) influence outcomes of innovation projects. Our results indicate that conformist managers enhance financial product performance, while creative designers contribute to higher levels of success by developing products that are both unique and of high quality. Moreover, designers' and managers' cognitive styles complement each other, indicating that for higher levels of product performance creative designers should not conform to rules and conformist managers should not be creative. However, our results also indicate that product performance is enhanced when designers and managers are both attentive to details, indicating that these professionals supplement each others' abilities as well.