Who you ask matters: Combining perspective taking and outsidership to identify novel and useful opportunities
通过三项实验，研究了视角采择与组织内外部身份如何共同影响机会识别的新颖性和有用性，发现内部人视角采择更易识别有用机会，外部人则更易识别新颖机会，而视角采择能帮助双方同时提升机会的新颖性和有用性。
Perspective taking is widely recognised as a valuable cognitive trait in entrepreneurship, particularly for identifying high-quality opportunities. However, its effectiveness may depend on the social embeddedness of the individual; specifically, whether they are organisational insiders or outsiders. This article integrates perspective taking with outsidership to examine how these factors jointly influence the novelty and usefulness of identified opportunities. Across three experimental studies, we find that insiders who engage in perspective taking tend to identify more useful opportunities, while outsiders generate more novel ones. Study 3 further reveals that perspective taking moderates the effects of outsidership, enabling both insiders and outsiders to identify opportunities that are simultaneously more novel and useful. Notably, perspective taking helps outsiders overcome the typical limitation of their position to enhance the perceived usefulness of their ideas and also helps outsiders have their ideas perceived as relatively more novel. These findings advance entrepreneurship research by clarifying the distinct roles of social positioning and perspective taking in opportunity identification and offer practical guidance for organisations seeking to generate innovative ideas.