Going Underground: Bootlegging and Individual Innovative Performance

In order to develop an innovation in a large, mature organization, individuals often have to go underground, secretly undertaking ?bootleg? R&D activities that have no formal organizational support. As yet, there have been few studies that examine how such efforts shape the ability of an individual to generate innovations for their organization. We argue that these underground R&D efforts will help individuals ? through greater exploration, bricolage and commitment ? overcome the challenges associated with the development of innovations in mature organizations. After carefully assessing the direction of causality, we find that individuals? bootlegging efforts are associated with achieving high levels of innovative performance, including radical innovations. Using a major organizational change towards formalization as our research setting, we find that those who increase bootlegging during times of intensifying formalization are less likely to be recognized as being innovative, whereas their chances of developing radical innovations increase. We explore the implications of the management of innovation.