Lecture 2: CREATIVITY
1) Defining Creativity
Why is creativity important?
● motivates idea generation (necessary but not sufficient criterion for innovation)
● Results in product differentiation
● valuable/rare/ imperfectly imitable and nonsubstitutable strategic resource (VRIN resource)
VRIN- difficult to imitate/ tacit knowledge/ hidden in the organization
Myths about creativity
- Pre-ordained skill (you born with it)/ Impossible to learn/ teach/ belongs to art not business
Creativity should be produced in all the departments | Stretch & provide a challenge to people enhances
creativity - it's a skills that you can train/ but it's also a trait | Everywhere in the business you need it
- Money is a Creativity motivator | Time pressure fuels creativity | Fear forces breakthroughs |
Competition beats collaboration | A streamlines organization is a creative organization
W/ money the quality of the ideas might decrease- they come with vary ideas but not the most quality/ fruitful
ones - bonuses are not good for creativity | Time- distraction from fighting the clock might affect creativity |
People sad/down VS joy/love - who experience joy & love the day before the creativity is higher & vice versa-
positive feelings fuel creativity | Sometimes competition works but in most cases competition within the firm
doesn’t help creativity - often it is necessary to collaborate to fuel creativity - sometimes they do a
competition & then collaboration phase to enhance creativity | Downsizing personal affect negatively
creativity - if you do so communicate as soon as possible/ even after the fired people left the organizations
the effects of a decrease on creativity were still visible
Why is creativity difficult to do?
- Defy the status quo=it’s challenging/ vulnerable position/ social pressure/ risk (it's not a natural state
to be creative)
Root causes of not being creative: Fear of change / more work / failure / criticism / rejection / losing control
Creativity definition:
Mental process involving the generation of new ideas/ concepts, or new associations between existing ideas/
concepts- reconnecting smh we know with smh we might not understand yet
Creative output perspective: not the ideas that remain in the brain but the news we made explicit!!!
Multiple levels:
1. Creative process - e.g task that can be creative
2. Creative product - e.g more novel/ meaningful product → the extent to which the new product differs
from the competing alternatives and are meaningful to customers
3. Organizational creativity - combines the product/ context/ people (more abstract/ high level- its based
on the previous levels) → the extent to which firms create valuable, new products, services,ideas.
1
,What makes a creative idea? CRITERION/ NECESSARY DIMENSIONS
Smh can be uncreative at the start but turn out to be creative (e.g radio- its not useful since they had
cablephones but then they understood their purpose latter on)
Divergent (a) & Convergent thinking (b)
(a) - Thinking inn many dif. Ways (brainstorming) - Usually creativity is more associated with the
divergent stage- without it convergent thinking can’t be done (using imagination)/ability to think many
original, diverse ideas and elaborate them.
(b) - Ability to select or recombine existent ideas from the divergent state into (a) new creative idea(s) -
less associated with creativity (usic logic)
Creativity VS Innovation
Creativity: production of a novel idea
Innovation: successful implementation of creative ideas by an organization- leds to commercialization if
profit is intended)
2) Phases of Idea Generation
4 Phases of Idea Journey/ Idea Generation Perry-Smith & Mannucci (2017) - review of the literature w/
mixed findings
- 1st stage: IDEA GENERATION: generating different Creative ideas and selecting the most promising.
It’s related with divergent and convergent thinking | NEED: Cognitive flexibility
- 2nd stage: IDEA ELABORATION: evaluating the novels idea potential and further clarifying and
developing | NEED: Emotional Support (+ constructive feedback) in order to reduce uncertainty
- 3rd stage: IDEA CHAMPIONING: promoting novel idea & get the green light so that people allocate
resources and political cover to implement it - make the idea accepted in the organization | NEED:
Influence & legitimacy in order to be successful
- 4th stage: IDEA IMPLEMENTATION: is broken into 2 sub-phases: Production and Impact.
Production: converting idea into tangible outcome. Impact: diffusion & adoption of the innovation |
NEED: Shared vision with the entire organization & understanding (so they fully understand it)
2 Perspectives of how to look at Creativity:
A) Tie Strength- relational (Grannovetter)
2
,B) Network Structure- structural (Burt)
A) Tie strength: It refers to the tie strength/ thickness of the tie.
Strong ties (e.g family & friends)- more close people
Weak ties (e.g acquaintances, co-workers, social media influencers)- more distant people
FINDING → The weak ties/ distant ties were the ones leading up to the best recommendations for a job
(novel/ non redundant information)
For a job you should not rely on the close ties because they have the same information as me
B) Network structure: It refers to the position within the network/ individuals in networks that bridge sub-
groups have access to diverse knowledge & more power (~knowledge advantage)
FINDING → The people on the position A have a sort of a brokery role- they can (dis)connect the parts
(linking bridge) & they can overcome the structural hole (missing information from one side to the other side/
gap on two individuals who have complementary knowledge). But A knows both- so it can leverage from it/
use it in its advantage - A attains power by SPANNING HOLE.
Structural closure: dense Networks like B have a fewer structural holes→create cohesion in the social norms
How A) & B) stimulate creativity?
3
, - Coleman says that the strong ties are also important, specially when the status-quo is being defied,
strong ties are important to provide support.
BOTH views agree that access to nonredundant info facilitates recombination and creativity!!! - Leveraging
the network position leads to a better outcome.
CONNECTION TO THE ARTICLE:
- Perry-Smith, J. E. and Mannucci, P. V. (2017) From Creativity to Innovation: The Social Network
Drivers of the Four Phases of the Idea Journey. Academy of Management Review, 42 (1): 53–
79.
To come up with these ideas in the 2 initial stages the minds of the individuals are needed (tie strength) |
Then its needed to implement the acceptance within the firm, so its more about the network (network
structure)
- Paradoxes:
4
1) Defining Creativity
Why is creativity important?
● motivates idea generation (necessary but not sufficient criterion for innovation)
● Results in product differentiation
● valuable/rare/ imperfectly imitable and nonsubstitutable strategic resource (VRIN resource)
VRIN- difficult to imitate/ tacit knowledge/ hidden in the organization
Myths about creativity
- Pre-ordained skill (you born with it)/ Impossible to learn/ teach/ belongs to art not business
Creativity should be produced in all the departments | Stretch & provide a challenge to people enhances
creativity - it's a skills that you can train/ but it's also a trait | Everywhere in the business you need it
- Money is a Creativity motivator | Time pressure fuels creativity | Fear forces breakthroughs |
Competition beats collaboration | A streamlines organization is a creative organization
W/ money the quality of the ideas might decrease- they come with vary ideas but not the most quality/ fruitful
ones - bonuses are not good for creativity | Time- distraction from fighting the clock might affect creativity |
People sad/down VS joy/love - who experience joy & love the day before the creativity is higher & vice versa-
positive feelings fuel creativity | Sometimes competition works but in most cases competition within the firm
doesn’t help creativity - often it is necessary to collaborate to fuel creativity - sometimes they do a
competition & then collaboration phase to enhance creativity | Downsizing personal affect negatively
creativity - if you do so communicate as soon as possible/ even after the fired people left the organizations
the effects of a decrease on creativity were still visible
Why is creativity difficult to do?
- Defy the status quo=it’s challenging/ vulnerable position/ social pressure/ risk (it's not a natural state
to be creative)
Root causes of not being creative: Fear of change / more work / failure / criticism / rejection / losing control
Creativity definition:
Mental process involving the generation of new ideas/ concepts, or new associations between existing ideas/
concepts- reconnecting smh we know with smh we might not understand yet
Creative output perspective: not the ideas that remain in the brain but the news we made explicit!!!
Multiple levels:
1. Creative process - e.g task that can be creative
2. Creative product - e.g more novel/ meaningful product → the extent to which the new product differs
from the competing alternatives and are meaningful to customers
3. Organizational creativity - combines the product/ context/ people (more abstract/ high level- its based
on the previous levels) → the extent to which firms create valuable, new products, services,ideas.
1
,What makes a creative idea? CRITERION/ NECESSARY DIMENSIONS
Smh can be uncreative at the start but turn out to be creative (e.g radio- its not useful since they had
cablephones but then they understood their purpose latter on)
Divergent (a) & Convergent thinking (b)
(a) - Thinking inn many dif. Ways (brainstorming) - Usually creativity is more associated with the
divergent stage- without it convergent thinking can’t be done (using imagination)/ability to think many
original, diverse ideas and elaborate them.
(b) - Ability to select or recombine existent ideas from the divergent state into (a) new creative idea(s) -
less associated with creativity (usic logic)
Creativity VS Innovation
Creativity: production of a novel idea
Innovation: successful implementation of creative ideas by an organization- leds to commercialization if
profit is intended)
2) Phases of Idea Generation
4 Phases of Idea Journey/ Idea Generation Perry-Smith & Mannucci (2017) - review of the literature w/
mixed findings
- 1st stage: IDEA GENERATION: generating different Creative ideas and selecting the most promising.
It’s related with divergent and convergent thinking | NEED: Cognitive flexibility
- 2nd stage: IDEA ELABORATION: evaluating the novels idea potential and further clarifying and
developing | NEED: Emotional Support (+ constructive feedback) in order to reduce uncertainty
- 3rd stage: IDEA CHAMPIONING: promoting novel idea & get the green light so that people allocate
resources and political cover to implement it - make the idea accepted in the organization | NEED:
Influence & legitimacy in order to be successful
- 4th stage: IDEA IMPLEMENTATION: is broken into 2 sub-phases: Production and Impact.
Production: converting idea into tangible outcome. Impact: diffusion & adoption of the innovation |
NEED: Shared vision with the entire organization & understanding (so they fully understand it)
2 Perspectives of how to look at Creativity:
A) Tie Strength- relational (Grannovetter)
2
,B) Network Structure- structural (Burt)
A) Tie strength: It refers to the tie strength/ thickness of the tie.
Strong ties (e.g family & friends)- more close people
Weak ties (e.g acquaintances, co-workers, social media influencers)- more distant people
FINDING → The weak ties/ distant ties were the ones leading up to the best recommendations for a job
(novel/ non redundant information)
For a job you should not rely on the close ties because they have the same information as me
B) Network structure: It refers to the position within the network/ individuals in networks that bridge sub-
groups have access to diverse knowledge & more power (~knowledge advantage)
FINDING → The people on the position A have a sort of a brokery role- they can (dis)connect the parts
(linking bridge) & they can overcome the structural hole (missing information from one side to the other side/
gap on two individuals who have complementary knowledge). But A knows both- so it can leverage from it/
use it in its advantage - A attains power by SPANNING HOLE.
Structural closure: dense Networks like B have a fewer structural holes→create cohesion in the social norms
How A) & B) stimulate creativity?
3
, - Coleman says that the strong ties are also important, specially when the status-quo is being defied,
strong ties are important to provide support.
BOTH views agree that access to nonredundant info facilitates recombination and creativity!!! - Leveraging
the network position leads to a better outcome.
CONNECTION TO THE ARTICLE:
- Perry-Smith, J. E. and Mannucci, P. V. (2017) From Creativity to Innovation: The Social Network
Drivers of the Four Phases of the Idea Journey. Academy of Management Review, 42 (1): 53–
79.
To come up with these ideas in the 2 initial stages the minds of the individuals are needed (tie strength) |
Then its needed to implement the acceptance within the firm, so its more about the network (network
structure)
- Paradoxes:
4
