Creativity and Innovation Management最新文献

Current approaches for identifying valuable content among the multitude of solutions in crowdsourcing contests are resource-intensive and constrained by human processing capacity. As idea convergence processes usually focus on filtering out single ideas, the potential of solution-related knowledge among the heterogeneous ideas is not exploited in a sustainable manner. Transformer-based language models can process large sets of idea descriptions into digestible structures, with unprecedented capabilities for understanding and manipulating text. This study explores how they can help organizations and decision-makers navigate crowdsourced solution spaces efficiently and comprehensively. Inspired by theoretical concepts around problem-solving and innovation search, we conceptualize three related search practices—direct search, cluster exploration and pattern discovery—and illustrate them on 289 crowdsourced ideas for future mobility and energy services. Direct search can assist in identifying solutions that match pressing needs or subproblems. Cluster exploration enables aggregating semantically similar ideas into clusters to identify relevant needs. Pattern discovery synthesizes themes and interrelations to build a holistic understanding of potential solutions. The study contributes to the application of AI-assisted idea convergence by adding a new perspective beyond filtering out a few promising ideas.

We know that solvers self-selecting in social innovation challenges come from diverse backgrounds including, among others, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, researchers, and professionals from various industries. However, we are not aware of what motives actually bring such solvers to self-select to address these challenges. This study aims at understanding how different kinds of motivations intervene and interact with the solvers' intention to participate considering the specific context of crowdsourcing for social innovation. Drawing on the self-determination theory, we built a theoretical framework that hypothesizes how intrinsic, extrinsic, and prosocial motivations interact with one another and affect solvers' self-selection process in social innovation initiatives. Empirically, to investigate the theoretical framework, a survey research design involving the use of questionnaires was adopted to obtain primary data from solvers engaged in crowdsourcing initiatives for social innovation to solve Covid-19-related problems in the HeroX platform. We found that prosocial motivations positively affect the solvers' self-selection process. Moreover, our results highlight that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations differently moderate the relationship between prosocial motivations and intention to participate. The results of this study offer relevant contributions to previous crowdsourcing and organizational psychology literature and provide critical implications for managers designing and organizing crowdsourcing for social innovation challenges.

This study examines the critical role of middle and frontline managers in an incumbent organization navigating discontinuous change, emphasizing the balance between exploring new opportunities and exploiting existing ones. While top managers set the strategic ambidextrous direction, the on-the-ground manifestation and tension management fall predominantly to the middle and frontline managers. We introduce a novel typology, classifying these managers as Evolutionists, Revolutionists, or Mediators, each with distinct cognitive framings. Our findings underscore the importance of understanding and moderating these cognitive framings to facilitate successful ambidextrous implementation. Key managerial implications include the need for heightened awareness of tension points, strategic resource allocation, mitigation of extreme cognitive framings, and the significant value of Mediator managers in steering ambidextrous strategies. This research paves the way for a deeper understanding of individual-level ambidexterity and provides crucial insights for organizations to innovate in times of discontinuous change.

Employees' innovative work behaviour (IWB) is crucial for organizations' long-term performance and success. In particular, research has examined leadership as a crucial antecedent of IWB, but there are inconclusive results about how leader–member exchange (LMX) translates into IWB. Building on LMX theory, we examine how the relationship between LMX and IWB is translated through subordinates' creative self-efficacy as a motivational factor and team support for innovation as a social-relational factor. To test our hypotheses, we conducted a matched field survey with 171 subordinates and supervisors and found a positive association between LMX and IWB. Our results also show that this relationship is mediated by team support for innovation but not by creative self-efficacy. Our findings confirm the importance of the social aspect in the innovation process and suggest that perceived social support plays a more significant role in the translation of LMX into the IWB than do individual motivational factors.

With the ongoing changes in the work environment, specifically turning from fulltime to no time at the office and nowadays pending somewhere in between, there is a need for decision makers to redefine their expectations of a day at the office. Previously, organizations worldwide focussed on creating workplaces that foster interaction and collaboration to enhance knowledge exchange and communication. Both are among the main drivers for stimulating creativity at the workplace, leading to increased innovation activities. Since offices are dramatically changing from lean, work-focused, and hierarchical workstations into employee-oriented, creativity-enhancing spaces with playground artefacts, the need for quantitative research on the effects of workplace design on creativity seems evident for researchers and practitioners. Although prior research has attempted to describe the physical work environment and its impact on creativity, empirical evidence is still lacking on what concrete attributes of a workplace employees perceive as inspiring. We therefore contribute to the existent body of knowledge by establishing a definition for inspiring physical workplaces as perceived by employees in times of digitalization and provide a conceptual model analysing the effects between workplace design, internal knowledge exchange, and creative problem-solving capacity. We assess our survey data with partial least squares structural equation modelling and provide first empirical evidence that our proposed formative index supports the common research agenda within the context of workplace design, and further, that aspects of workplace design not only enhance creative problem-solving capacity as an important dimension of creativity itself, but that this relationship is also partially mediated by internal knowledge exchange.

Empirical studies in innovation management often draw on data collected in particular regions, mostly in Western economies, and imply universal applicability of the findings across regions. Given the relevance of innovation for economic progress and structural and cultural differences among regions, there is surprisingly little knowledge available on whether the knowledge developed from Western firms can be transferred to emerging economies. This dearth of knowledge is especially notable for the early phases of innovation processes. Rapid iterations between knowledge creation and learning are critical at the front end of innovation (FEI), a phase that, in turn, is crucial for innovation success. In a recently published article, Peña Häufler and co-authors developed the concept of rapid validity testing (RVT) and found support for its positive relation with innovation performance. Since the authors draw on a sample of Western firms, we explore whether the concept of RVT and its performance relevance remain valid across regional contexts. The data for this study stem from a sample of 1625 respondents from 232 firms in Europe and Latin America. Our findings advance our understanding of innovation management practices in different contexts, informing future research on the approach and relevance of assessing the effect of different contexts on central measures for improving innovative capabilities.

Although work-floor employees are important sources of creative ideas, having creative ideas is not enough to implement bottom-up innovations. This is particularly evident in formalized contexts. Research shows that innovations require the provision of resources because they are crucial for each phase of the innovation process, from the generation of ideas to their implementation. Nevertheless, a better understanding is needed of how these resources are acquired and used by work-floor employees to pursue their innovative ideas. Therefore, in this study, we adopt a resource-mobilization perspective and examine the types of resources and resource access mechanisms that are needed in a bottom-up innovation process. Adopting an exploratory case study based on 43 interviews and document analysis, we show that specific actions are deployed as resource access mechanisms to acquire five types of resources in the bottom-up innovation process. Different resources are important in the three phases, and the mechanisms by which these resources are acquired play a key role in explaining the effect of these resources. In sum, our research adds to the understanding of the actions and factors that shape bottom-up innovation endeavours.

In this article, we study how a luxury fashion engineering company strategically introduced sustainability-oriented innovations (SOIs) over time through an in-depth longitudinal analysis of a leading Italian business-to-business (B2B) firm. We apply a strategic management perspective to this first-tier engineering manufacturer to bring new insights into how upstream firms deploy SOIs and to what effect, thus determining long-term technological choices in the industry. We observe that such innovations evolved dynamically from the process dimension to the supply chain and, lastly, to the product dimension, thereby spanning explorational, procedural and communicational practices. We find that the company sustained significant growth over a decade while implementing its sustainability transition, thanks to three elements: a broad and wide-ranging experimentation in all areas of the company, a continuous dynamic process of learning-by-doing and a commitment of the top management to prioritize new sustainable practices. The propositions developed from this case study can inform future strategic analysis and management of SOIs in other firms/industrial sectors.

Creativity training involves instruction to improve learners' capability related to the generation of new and useful ideas. Although prior meta-analyses have examined training's effectiveness, the studies included are almost solely with children or many organizational samples are excluded. Authors of notable reviews on creativity in organizational settings have noted that they were unable to find adequately conducted and reported studies using genuine intervention designs at the individual, team, or organizational level, raising the question: is creativity training research in organizational settings lacking rigor, visibility, or just lacking? In this meta-analysis, we examine creativity training effectiveness using Kirkpatrick's four levels of evaluation (reactions, learning, behavior, results) and moderators reflecting study rigor and training delivery/content. Results indicate that training is effective overall (g = 0.68) and for learning outcomes (g = 0.73). However, effects are nonsignificant for on-the-job behavior/transfer outcomes (g = 0.34). All moderator analyses were nonsignificant except for timing of outcome evaluation. Studies with a delayed assessment showed a significantly smaller training effect (g = 0.40) than did studies with an immediate assessment (g = 0.86). These results indicate that rigorous creativity training research in organizational settings with behavioral outcomes measured after a delay is lacking. We discuss implications for future research and practical implications for creativity training.

This study indicated the role of conflict and idea acceptance on the relationship between feedback and team creative behaviour. We focused on the team's contextual factors affecting team creative behaviour instead of the behaviour of individuals between the specific hierarchical level in the organizations. We surveyed 535 practitioners in Japanese firms and quantitatively examined the result through hierarchical multiple regression analysis. The results show the positive direct effect of feedback on team creative behaviour and the mediation effects of conflict and idea acceptance on the relationship between feedback and team creative behaviour, which were identified regardless of the creative process. On the other hand, conflict negatively moderated the feedback-team creative behaviour relationship only in the idea-generation phase. This study contributes to team creativity studies by clarifying the effect of conflict, which had contradictory findings in the previous research. In addition, shedding light on idea acceptance within the teams is another contribution since limited studies are focusing on it. The results offer implications to practitioners by giving suggestions to effectively provide and react to feedback within the teams by managing conflicts that have both positive and negative effects on creativity and accepting each other's ideas, which move the idea forward.