An unknown screenwriter is ushered into the office of a movie producer to sell his idea for a blockbuster. In mere seconds, the producer has already used industry stereotypes to judge the creativity of the man behind the pitch.

What happens in Hollywood has lessons for other fields -- product design, marketing and advertising, and venture capital funding -- where executives have just moments to assess the creativity of those making pitches, say two California business professors.

Kim Elsbach of the Graduate School of Management at the University of California, Davis, and Roderick Kramer of Stanford University say producers use physical traits and behavior to type individuals and use their own level of engagement with the pitch to assess creativity.

The seven established types range from the show runner who combines creative inspiration with production know-how to the argumentative "used-car salesmen" unwilling to make revisions.

While typecasting might help decision makers, Elsbach suggests caution: Some of the attributes used run counter to those that actually promote creativity.

Elsbach says an executive could test a pitcher's ability to deliver by asking the imaginative artist for a finished product or by probing the show runner's experience. Or she could invite other executives to vet pitches with her.

"Ultimately, the pitch will always remain an imperfect process for selecting creative ideas," Elsbach says. "But by being aware of stereotyping processes and the value of collaboration, both pitchers and catchers can understand the difference between a pitch and a hit."

Elsbach and Kramer's study included interviews with 36 people in the film and television industry and observations of 28 pitch sessions. The research was published in the Academy of Management Journal in June, and Elsbach's version for business executives is forthcoming in the Harvard Business Journal in September.