Entrepreneurial Orientation,Social Networks,and Creative Performance: Middle Managers as Corporate Entrepreneurs

Though previous research has highlighted how important it is for middle managers to contribute to corporate entrepreneurship, little work has been done to explore how they produce creative performance by examining the direct, curvilinear and moderating effects of their entrepreneurial orientation and social networks. A total of 337 middle managers conducting marketing, R&D and project management in Taiwan are studied. The results suggest that middle managers' disposition towards proactiveness and innovativeness is positively related to their creative performance, and their internal bonding networks and upper management networks are found to strengthen the effects of entrepreneurial orientation on creative performance. However, middle managers' external bridging networks are found to have an inverted U‐shaped curvilinear relationship with their creative performance, and to weaken the effect of entrepreneurial orientation on creative performance. These findings echo the interactionist perspective of creativity, implying that middle managers should manage their social networks more carefully, as social interaction with network actors may either facilitate or inhibit their creativity at work.     

What if it Switched on the Sun? Exploring Creativity in a Brainstorming Session with Children Through a Vygotskyan Perspective

We contribute in this study a first step in theory-based understanding on how creativity in collaborative design sessions relates to the elements that are present in a creative act. These elements include group composition, objects present, practices used, and previous knowledge of the participants. The context of this study was our search for lightweight methods for technology design with children, which can be used in a school context with large groups, will require as little amount of training as possible, and can be set up quickly. We formed a mixed group, consisting of young children, an older child and an adult, with the aim of involving children in creative collaborative brainstorming during the very early phases of design, so as to come up with fruitful ideas for technology development. We report our process and examine the implications of our results in relation to different elements that trigger and affect creativity in the collaborative design process. Use of Vygotsky’s cycle of creativity as our theoretical lens together with timeline analysis method presented in the paper were essential for seeing beneath the surface of what happened in this complex, collaborative creative process. Our results can be used for further methodological development of creative collaborative sessions, both with children and adults.     

Constraints that Help or Hinder Creative Performance: A Motivational Approach

Threatening situations, in which people fear negative outcomes or failure, evoke avoidance motivation. Avoidance motivation, in turn, evokes a focused, systematic and effortful way of information processing that has often been linked to reduced creativity. This harmful effect of avoidance motivation on creativity can be problematic in financially turbulent times when people fear for their jobs and financial security. However, particularly in such threatening times, creativity may be crucial to innovate, adapt to changing demands and stay ahead of competitors. Here, I propose a theoretical framework describing how different types of constraints in the workplace affect creative performance under approach and avoidance motivation. Specifically, under avoidance motivation, constraints that consume or occupy cognitive resources should undermine creativity, but constraints that channel cognitive resources should facilitate creativity. Understanding the impact of different types of constraints on creative performance is needed to develop strategies for maximizing creativity in the workplace.     

Older people’s production and appropriation of digital videos: an ethnographic study

While most of today’s children, young people, and adults are both consumers and producers of digital content, very little is known about older people as digital content creators. Drawing on a three-year ethnographic study, this paper reports on the digital video production and appropriation of approximately 200 older people (aged 60–85). They generated 320 videos over the course of the study. We show their motivations for engaging in digital video production, discuss their planned video making, and highlight their creativity while editing videos. We show the different meanings they ascribed to digital videos in their social appropriation of these objects, the meaningful strategies they adopted to share videos, and the impact on their perceived wellbeing. Furthermore, we outline the solutions the participants developed to overcome or cope with interaction issues they faced over time. We argue that the results portray older people as active and creative makers of digital videos with current video capturing, editing, and sharing technologies. We contend that this portrayal both encourages us to re-consider how older people should be seen within human–computer interaction and helps to frame future research/design activities that bridge the grey digital divide.     

Experiencing flow with instant messaging and its facilitating role on creative behaviors

The goal of this study is to explore how experiencing flow with IM, an Internet-based communication technology, can facilitate an individual’s perception on creativity. We argue that certain capabilities in IM, telepresence and perceived control, provide users a means to experience flow. We further investigate whether flow and its outcomes, positive affect and exploratory behavior have any influence on the perception of creativity of the users. Using an online survey with 207 observations we found that user’s perceived control over the technology and its ability to transport the user to a virtual environment were shown to facilitate the experience of flow. We found that flow in itself does not influence perceived expected creativity in its users but does indirectly influence perceived expected creativity through exploratory behavior and positive affect. From these initial findings we believe that our study provides implications for both users and designers on IT. Furthermore, managers can apply the findings during implementation and use of interactive information technologies for communications in the workplace.     

Transition rather than balance: Organizing constraints for collective creativity in pharmaceutical development

When it comes to organizing for collective creativity, management scholars typically advise balancing between constraint and freedom. However, this suggestion to balance is often too enigmatic in practice, neglects the dynamics inherent in creative processes, and predominantly highlights the inhibiting aspects of constraints. Thus, the present article aims to rethink this balancing proposition by asking how constraints unfold during collective creative processes. Based on four cases of pharmaceutical development, it illustrates how collective creativity is enabled by constraints from two distinct sources, namely restraint and contingency. The article further shows how and why these constraint sources alternate along the development trajectory. While constraints can enable collective creativity, phases of constraint transition are eventually necessary to revitalize the development process. Building upon these findings, the article concludes that organizing constraints for collective creativity is a matter of transition rather than balance.     

Object–object interaction affordance learning

This paper presents a novel object–object affordance learning approach that enables intelligent robots to learn the interactive functionalities of objects from human demonstrations in everyday environments. Instead of considering a single object, we model the interactive motions between paired objects in a human–object–object way. The innate interaction-affordance knowledge of the paired objects are learned from a labeled training dataset that contains a set of relative motions of the paired objects, human actions, and object labels. The learned knowledge is represented with a Bayesian Network, and the network can be used to improve the recognition reliability of both objects and human actions and to generate proper manipulation motion for a robot if a pair of objects is recognized. This paper also presents an image-based visual servoing approach that uses the learned motion features of the affordance in interaction as the control goals to control a robot to perform manipulation tasks.     

To be human is to be creative

We will assert than in the era of Ubiquitous Technology to be human is to be creative. Small children are experimental and creative actors. The socialisation process in modern societies, both at home and at educational institutions, does not enhance and develop their creativity. On the contrary, their creativity is discouraged in many ways. We conceptualise creativity developmentally: It is possible to use activities, teaching methods, motivation and procedures to enhance and develop creativity, even in older people. This paper gives some guides that can be used both at home and at work to explore, enhance and develop ones own creativity and the creativity of others. Each suggestion is presented from a practical viewpoint and then related to some of the tools and concepts that scientists and artists use in their creative endeavours.     

Subject Positions and Power Relations in Creative Organizations: Taking a Discursive View on Organizational Creativity

In this paper we take a discursive view on organizational creativity and examine subject positions and power relations produced within a discourse on creativity in two different kinds of creative organizations, an opera house and a games company. In particular, we focus on the ways in which the discourse is practised in creative production processes. The two cases illustrate how the macro‐level discourse on creativity can be enacted in a more micro‐level construction of subjectivities. In the study we identified several subject positions that were shared by both organizations, and examined how they were embedded in the organizations' formal and informal hierarchies. By taking a discursive approach to creativity, we have also been able to explore some unwanted consequences of emphasizing creativity in organizations.     

综合推理与智能书法创作

In this paper, we address the demanding task of developing intelligent systems equipped with machine creativity that can perform design tasks automatically. The main challenge is how to model human beings' creativity mathematically and mimic such creativity computationally. We propose a ``synthesis reasoning model" as the underlying mechanism to simulate human beings' creative thinking when they are handling design tasks. We present the theory of the synthesis reasoning model, and the detailed procedure of designing an intelligent system based on the model. We offer a case study of an intelligent Chinese calligraphy generation system which we have developed. Based on implementation experiences of the calligraphy generation system as well as a few other systems for solving real-world problems, we suggest a generic methodology for constructing intelligent systems using the synthesis reasoning model.     

An efficient continuous tracking system in real-time surveillance application

A tracking object must present a proper field of view (FOV) in a multiple active camera surveillance system; its clarity can facilitate smooth processing by the surveillance system before further processing, such as face recognition. However, when pan–tilt–zoom (PTZ) cameras are used, the tracking object can be brought into the FOV by adjusting its intrinsic parameters; consequently, selection of the best-performing camera is critical. Performance is determined by the relative positions of the camera and the tracking objects, image quality, lighting and how much of the front side of the object faces the camera. In a multi-camera surveillance system, both camera hand-off and camera assignment play an important role in automated and persistent tracking, which are typical surveillance requirements. This study investigates the use of automatic methods for tracking an object across cameras in a surveillance network using PTZ cameras. An automatic, efficient continuous tracking scheme is developed. The goal is to determine the decision criteria for hand-off using Sight Quality Indication (SQI) (which includes information on the position of the object and the proportion of the front of object faces the camera), and to perform the camera handoff task in a manner that optimizes the vision effect associated with monitoring. Experimental results reveal that the proposed algorithm can be efficiently executed, and the handoff method for feasible and continuously tracking active objects under real-time surveillance.     

Organizing Individual and Collective Creativity: Flying in the Face of Creativity Clichés

The growing complexity of problems requires collective solutions to produce creative outcomes. Organizational theory on creativity has been extensively developed in recent decades, but two problematic issues remain. First, no current comprehensive model explains the development of collective creativity. Second, no empirical research has been conducted on the process of theory dissemination and its relevance within the managerial community. This paper provides evidence which can inform the design of collective creative projects within organizations, flying in the face of some managerial clichés. We design a research project which enables managerial sensemaking to emerge and which proposes a comprehensive approach to the design of team creativity. From a research design involving 24 managers and 98 eleven‐person groups, results confirm that creativity is not only about creative genius, and design for creativity is not a matter of linear correlation but implies a more sophisticated and integrative approach according to which individual creative skills, team dynamics and organizational solutions interact with each other to produce a collective creative performance.     

Data mining for providing a personalized learning path in creativity: An application of decision trees

Customizing a learning environment to optimize personal learning has recently become a popular trend in e-learning. Because creativity has become an essential skill in the current e-learning epoch, this study aims to develop a personalized creativity learning system (PCLS) that is based on the data mining technique of decision trees to provide personalized learning paths for optimizing the performance of creativity. The PCLS includes a series of creativity tasks as well as a questionnaire regarding several key variables. Ninety-two college students were included in this study to examine the effectiveness of the PCLS. The experimental results show that, when the learning path suggested by a hybrid decision tree is employed, the learners have a 90% probability of obtaining an above-average creativity score, which suggests that the employed data mining technique can be a good vehicle for providing adaptive learning that is related to creativity. Moreover, the findings in this study shed light on what components should be accounted for when designing a personalized creativity learning system as well as how to integrate personalized learning and game-based learning into a creative learning program to maximize learner motivation and learning effects.     

Creative Leaders: A Decade of Contributions from Creativity and Innovation Management Journal

Articles published in Creativity and Innovation Management volumes 1–9 (1991–2000) have been examined for their contributions to understanding of leadership as a process contributing to creativity and innovation. The study reveals nine overlapping themes, within each of which leadership plays a part in the production of creative insights or innovative productivity. However, for many authors, leadership remains an implicit factor within their models of change. We suggest that leadership, creativity and innovation are knowledge systems which can be more closely integrated for improved theory and practice within communities of practice.     

An Exploratory Study of Entrepreneurial Creativity: Its Antecedents and Mediators in the Context of UAE Firms

In this study, we attempt to advance our understanding of the role of entrepreneurial creativity in the context of firms in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Through field research accompanied by a review of the related literature, this study identifies crucial antecedents of entrepreneurial creativity. The proposed model combines variables belonging to different contextual factors such as external factors (resource access, resource possession, and alertness to opportunity) and individual factors (creative self‐efficacy, expertise and intrinsic motivation). The model is tested using data from a large‐scale survey of firms in the UAE. We find that expertise and creative self‐efficacy is significantly related to entrepreneurial creativity. The results also reveal that intrinsic motivation and alertness to opportunity are the key mediators between contextual factors and entrepreneurial creativity. The findings of this study present some interesting practical implications to entrepreneurs in order to improve their creative skills.     

The Antecedents of Creativity Revisited: A Process Perspective

This study invokes a process view on employee creativity to uncover how the different stages of the creative process are associated with different antecedents. Specifically, we explore the role of five previously identified antecedents of organizational creativity in the different phases of the creative process within organizations: (1) personality; (2) rewards; (3) the role of co‐workers; (4) leadership; and (5) organizational resources. In an analysis of 22 case studies we found that antecedents of creativity indeed have different roles in different stages of the creative process and that antecedents that are helpful in one stage of the creative process, can be detrimental for another stage. Such results highlight the importance of conceptualizing creativity as a process, rather than as an outcome variable.     

A Comparison of Creative Behaviours in Online Communities across Cultures

In this study we shed light on the impact of cultural differences on creative processes and innovation creation in online communities. Analysing English‐ and Chinese‐speaking online basketball communities, we investigate how innovations develop in virtual consumer groups and what motives drive members to engage in joint innovation creation. Similarly to findings from creativity research in offline contexts, we find that culture does have an influence on creative processes and expressions. While English‐ and Chinese‐speaking online communities are similar in their high quality and quantity of creative outputs, they differ with regard to innovation patterns and the kinds of emerging innovations. From a practical perspective the findings suggest that companies that aim to collaborate with communities across cultures have to align the interaction with the members' different expectations and routines. Further, what communities consider as creative and innovative may depend on culture.     

Virtual reality application influences cognitive load-mediated creativity components and creative performance in engineering design

Virtual reality (VR) can promote design performance, and may generate a high cognitive load and affect creative design thinking as well. In order to examine the effect of VR application on cognitive load and engineering design creativity, this study recruited 81 eighth-grade students as participants and employed a non-equivalent-groups quasi-experimental design to examine how VR application influences creativity components and creative performance. A creativity component scale (creative motivation, creative thinking, and professional cognition), a measurement of creative performance, and a cognitive load scale were used to collect data. The study also investigated the ability of VR application to predict creativity components and creative performance, using cognitive load as the mediator. The conclusions are as follows: (1) VR application had marked effects on professional cognition and creative motivation but no effect on creative thinking skills. (2) VR application had marked effects on the novelty and usefulness aspects of creative performance, particularly with respect to usefulness. (3) VR application had marked effects on extraneous and germane cognitive load, but no influence on intrinsic cognitive load, and (4) Both VR application and cognitive load were able to predict creativity components and creative performance. Their abilities to predict creative performance approached an acceptable level. Nevertheless, VR application had no effect on general creative thinking skills; therefore, other teaching strategies are needed to strengthen creative thinking.     

Towards understanding and supporting creativity in design: analogies in a constrained cognitive environment

In order to show that the emergence of new ideas takes place in a “constrained cognitive environment”, we conducted two experimental studies in a creative professional area: non-routine design. The first study is focused on the role of analogical reasoning in creativity and, especially, on the nature of potential “sources” of inspiration, which facilitate the evocation process. The second study aims at understanding on which ground designers of different levels of expertise construct their own constrained cognitive environment. Based on the obtained results, we suggest ways to facilitate creative acts from designers.