Ideas rise from chaos: Information structure and creativity

•A hierarchical information structure (HIS) organizes information by categories.•A flat information structure (FIS) is an information set without categories.•Scholars have advocated HIS due to its efficiency benefits.•For creativity, HIS is detrimental because it reduces cognitive flexibility.•FIS increases creativity because it enhances flexible uses of information.

Is structure good or bad for creativity? When it comes to organizing information, management scholars have long advocated for a hierarchical information structure (information organized around higher-order categories as opposed to a flat information structure where there is no higher-order category) to reduce complexity of information processing and increase efficiency of work. However, a hierarchical information structure can be a double-edged sword that may reduce creativity, defined as novel and useful combination of existing information. This is because a hierarchical information structure might obstruct combining information from distal conceptual categories. Thus, the current research investigates whether information structure influences creativity. We theorize that a hierarchical information structure, compared to a flat information structure, will reduce creativity because it reduces cognitive flexibility. Three experiments using a sentence construction task and a LEGO task supported our prediction.