Many established organizations rely on unsponsored R&D projects to sustain and support corporate renewal. These ideas that emerge from dark corners of the organization are often the result of inventors’ proactive creative efforts. Yet, little is known about the origins of these creative efforts, and what drives individuals to decide for or against engagement in such behavior. Building on the notion of middle-status conformity, we argue for the existence of a curvilinear (U-shaped) relationship between inventors’ status and their participation in autonomous inventive efforts. We argue that this effect is further moderated by factors influencing the salience of existing status-granting institutions, specifically the novelty of the technological domain of the invention, the competitive position of the wider organization, and the inventors’ geographic location. Using a unique dataset of invention disclosures from a global technology-based firm, we find general support for our hypotheses. We propose implications for theories of innovation, networks, and status that add to our understanding of proactive forms of creative effort.