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.