Call for Papers: Special Issue on Creativity in Innovation Management

International Journal of Innovation Management (IJIM)

Call for Papers:
Special Issue on Creativity in Innovation Management

Guest Editors

In order to reflect the interdisciplinary character of creativity, the Editors of this special issue cover three fundamental areas:

Why and for what can we use creativity: Business and managerial aspects
Alexander Brem, University of Southern Denmark, Sønderborg, Denmark

How can we interact in creative settings: Psychological and social aspects
Rogelio Puente-­‐Diaz, Universidad Anahuac Mexico Norte, Estado de Mexico, Mexico

How can we activate creative thinking: Cognitive and neural aspects
Marine Agogué, HEC Montréal, Montréal, Canada

Background

In  today’s  business  world  creativity  has  become  one  of  the  most  important  success  factors (Florida, 2002). The understanding of “organizational creativity as the creation of  a  valuable,  useful  new  product,  service,  idea,  procedure,  or  process  by  individuals  working together in a complex social system” (Woodman et al., 1993) is vital for the innovation  process  of  a  company  and  serves  as  a  mainspring  especially  at  the  early  beginning of an innovation (Bilgram et al., 2008). Innovation as the practical application of created ideas in turn is a critical success factor for a company’s competitive advantage and long-­‐term success.

Creativity  has  been  studied  across  several  disciplines  including  psychology,  social  sciences, economics, education and the arts. However, a homogenous definition and classification of the term creativity has often been neglected (Plucker & Beghetto, 2004; Puccio & Cabra, 2012; Simonton, 2013). Moreover, creativity has been recognized as not manageable for a long time. Therefore, studies on creativity have looked at factors that “can manage for creativity” (Amabile & Mukti, 2008) such as leadership competencies or a  working  environment  that  positively  influences  and  supports  or  hampers  creative  processes in an organization. A further shortcoming of creativity research has been that it has traditionally distinguished between two generic types of creativity. The everyday creativity inherent in the average person (e.g. Richards, 2007) and the creative genius, associated with famous talents in certain fields (e.g. Simonton, 1997). Especially in the context of business and management literature, there is still need for further research to demystify  creativity  as  being  a  natural  force  without  control,  and  to  elaborate  its  role  within the management of innovation.

Hence, the question arises how this multifaceted and interdisciplinary topic of creativity can be included in innovation management, which is the focus of this Special Issue.

Subject coverage

In  this  context,  theoretical  and  conceptual  papers  on  creativity  in  innovation  management from different disciplines are welcome. Interdisciplinary research is as well  encouraged.  Empirical  studies  that  feature  examples  and  results  of  creativity  in  innovation management are encouraged, as well as papers on success factors and risks. Comparative studies that examine similarities and differences between different sectors and countries are also welcome.

  • Suggested topics for this special issue are:
  • Definition and measurement of creativity
  • Integration in the Front End of Innovation
  • Insights into creative processes and creative cognition
  • Levers on creative thinking during ideation
  • Creativity along the innovation process
  • Linkage of creativity with prototyping and manufacturing
  • Business Model Innovation and Creativity
  • Management of networks for creativity
  • Incentivation for creativity
  • Research on creativity techniques
  • Use of collaboration tools for creativity
  • Role of innovation culture on creative processes
  • Boundaries of creativity and design
  • Individual and (interdisciplinary) team creativity
  • Similarities/differences between facilitating creativity and innovation

Moreover, studies on country comparisons influence of industry and firm size as well as gender-­‐related differences are in the scope of this Call for Papers.

Notes for prospective authors

Submitted  papers  must  not  have  been  previously  published  or  be  currently  under  consideration for publication elsewhere. All papers will be refereed by an international Special Issue Editorial Board through a double-­‐blind peer review process.

A  guide  for  authors,  sample  copies  and  other  relevant  information  is  available  at  http://www.worldscinet.com/ijim

In  addition,  selected  articles  will  be  invited  being  released  in  a  book  published  by  Imperial College Press.

Important Dates

Submission of manuscripts: April 1, 2015
Notification to authors: July 15, 2015
Revisions due: August 15, 2015
Second round decisions: October 15, 2015
Revisions due: NOvember 15, 2015
Final Editorial Decision: December 15, 2015
Journal publication: Spring 2016

References

Amabile, T. M., & Mukti, K. (2008). Creativity and the role of the leader. Harvard Business Review, 86(10), 100-­‐109.

Bilgram,  V.,  Brem,  A.,  &  Voigt,  K.-­‐I.  (2008).  User-­‐centric  innovations  in  new  product  development:  Systematic identification of lead users harnessing interactive and collaborative online-­‐tools. International Journal of Innovation Management, 12 (3), 419-­‐458.

Florida, R. (2002). The rise of the creative class. New York: Basic Books.

Plucker, J.A., & Beghetto, R.A. (2004). Why creativity is domain general, why it looks domain specific, and why the distinction doesn’t matter. In R.J. Sternberg, E.L. Grigorenko, & J.L. Singer (Eds.), Creativity: From potential to realization (pp. 153-­‐167). Washington, DC: American Psychology Association.

Puccio,  G.  J.,  &  Cabra,  J.  F.  (2012).  Idea  generation  and  idea  evaluation:  Cognitive  skills  and  deliberate  practices. In M. Mumford (Ed.), Handbook of Organizational Creativity (pp. 189-­‐215). San Diego, CA: Academic Press.

Richards, R. (2007). Everyday creativity: Our hidden potential. In R. Richards (Ed.), Everyday creativity and new views of human nature (pp. 25–54). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Simonton, D. K. (1997). Creative productivity: A predictive and explanatory model of career trajectories and landmarks. Psychological Review, 104, 66–89.

Simonton,  D.  K.  (2013).  What  is  a  creative  idea?  Little-­‐C  versus  Big-­‐C  creativity.  In  K.  Thomas  &  J.  Chan  (Eds.), Handbook of Research on Creativity (pp.69-­‐83). Cheltenham, GL: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.

Woodman, R. W., Sawyer, J.E., & Griffin, R.W. (1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18(2), 293-­‐321.