Creativity, Innovation, and Change Across Cultures


Book Description

This book offers interdisciplinary, multicultural, and international perspectives on the interrelation between culture, innovation, change and creative forces. Its wide-ranging contributions present theoretical and empirical approaches and with reference to different domains across disciplines including psychology, education, social sciences, humanities, and engineering. The authors demonstrate how urgent social, environmental, technological, and economic challenges can benefit from individual, and community creativity to effect change. In this volume, “culture” refers to sociocultural differences, educational culture, media culture, organizational culture, technological culture, ethnic differences within a culture, and digital culture. Its contributors offer fresh insights on how creativity, innovation, and change can propel us forward and offer hope for the future across these many different forms of culture. They offer both granular studies of creativity and innovation at work in particular contexts and macro-level discussion on how they affect organizational culture, the culture of a discipline and society at large. This cross-cultural analysis of creativity, innovation and approaches to change will particularly appeal to practitioners and researchers in the fields of psychology, organizational behavior and education.




Creativity and Humor


Book Description

Creativity and Humor provides an overview of the intersection of how humor influences creativity and how creativity can affect humor. The book's chapters speak to the wide reach of creativity and humor with different topics, such as play, culture, work, education, therapy, and social justice covered. As creativity and humor are individual traits and abilities that have each been studied in psychology, this book presents the latest information. Explains how, and why, humor enhances creativity Explores the thought processes behind producing humor and creativity Examines how childhood play is the basis for both creativity and humor Discusses cross-cultural differences in humor and creativity Reviews creativity and humor in politics, teaching and relationships




Creativity and Beyond


Book Description

Creativity and Beyond offers a wide-ranging, interdisciplinary tour of cultures past and present to examine the different ways people have conceived of "creativity" and how the common understanding of creativity is changing in the current flux of global culture. Weiner analyzes the ways in which understanding creativity is tied to broader contemporary patterns, including intellectual concerns with postmodernism; trends in the arts; the changing status of women; the power of the electronic media; multiculturalism; developments in psychology, science, and technology; and the dramatic political, economic, and social transformations of our age.




Creativity, Innovation and the Cultural Economy


Book Description

This collection brings together international experts from different continents to examine creativity and innovation in the cultural economy. In doing so, the collection provides a unique contemporary resource for researchers and advanced students. As a whole, the collection addresses creativity and innovation in a broad organizational field of knowledge relationships and transactions. In considering key issues and debates from across this developing arena of the global knowledge economy, the collection pursues an interdisciplinary approach that encompasses Management, Geography, Economics, Sociology and Cultural Studies.




Creativity, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship Across Cultures


Book Description

The aim of this volume is to further develop the relationship between culture and manifold phenomena of creativity, innovation and entrepreneurship in order to promote further and better understanding how, why, and when these phenomena are manifested themselves across different cultures. Currently, cross-cultural research is one of the most dynamically and rapidly growing areas. At the same time, creativity, inventiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship are championed in the literature as the critical element that is vital not just for companies, but also for the development of societies. A sizable body of research demonstrates that cultural differences may foster or inhibit creative, inventive, innovative and entrepreneurial activities; and each culture has its own strengths and weaknesses in these regards. Better understanding of cultural diversity in these phenomena can help to build on strengths and overcome weaknesses. Cross-cultural studies in this field represent a comparatively new class of interdisciplinary research. This is a field where cultural, sociological, psychological, historical, economic, management, technology and business studies closely intersect. In this book, a global team of researchers representing Europe, Asia, and the Americas review, analyze, structure, systematize and discuss various concepts, assumptions, speculations, theories, and empirical research which focus on the effect of national cultures on creativity, invention, innovation, and entrepreneurship. They argue that national culture is not only an extremely important determinant of innovation and business development, but also demonstrate that some aspects relating to these phenomena may be universal among all cultures, thereby identifying those factors that may easily be transferred across cultures from those that are unique to their specific context.




Creative Construction


Book Description

This myth-busting book shows large companies can construct a strategy, system, and culture of innovation that creates sustained growth. Every company wants to grow, and the most proven way is through innovation. The conventional wisdom is that only disruptive, nimble startups can innovate; once a business gets bigger and more complex corporate arteriosclerosis sets in. Gary Pisano's remarkable research conducted over three decades, and his extraordinary on-the ground experience with big companies and fast-growing ones that have moved beyond the start-up stage, provides new thinking about how the scale of bigger companies can be leveraged for advantage in innovation. He begins with the simply reality that bigger companies are, well, different. Demanding that they "be like Uber" is no more realistic than commanding your dog to speak French. Bigger companies are complex. They need to sustain revenue streams from existing businesses, and deal with Wall Street's demands. These organizations require a different set of management practices and approaches--a discipline focused on the strategies, systems and culture for taking their companies to the next level. Big can be beautiful, but it requires creative construction by leaders to avoid the creative destruction that is all-too-often the fate of too many.




Milieus of Creativity


Book Description

Milieus of Creativity is the second volume in the book series Knowledge and Space. This book deals with spatial disparities of knowledge and the impact of environments, space and contexts on the production and application of knowledge. The contributions in this volume focus on the role of places, environments, and spatial contexts for the emergence and perpetuation of creativity. Is environment a social or a spatial phenomenon? Are only social factors relevant for the development of creativity or should one also include material artefacts and resources in its definition? How can we explain spatial disparities of creativity without falling victim to geodeterminism? This book offers insights from various disciplines such as environmental psychology, philosophy, and social geography. It presents the results of a research conference at Heidelberg University in September 2006, which was supported by the Klaus Tschira Foundation.




Cross-cultural Innovation


Book Description

Cross-cultural means not only the differences between ethnic, racial or national groups. It is more. Cross-cultural confrontations arise by the differences of genders, educational levels, differences in thinking of diverse companies departments (e.g. production versus research & development, marketing versus finance), the mix of musicians or styles of painting. However, there is a lot of danger in cross-cultural collaboration: Diversity means different views, opinions, values and objectives easily generating misunderstandings and quarrels possibly ending up with serious conflicts. The conflicts may trigger new approaches and breakthroughs or lead to a state of frozen relations and stagnation. Sensitivity to the values and views of other cultures, open communication and aware leadership are traits helping to capitalize on cross-cultural influences. In further discussions with our friends of the EACI board we changed our mind for the new conference topic to CROSS-CULTURAL INNOVATION. Cross-cultural Innovations are new and origin problem solutions, which are generated in confronting problems with cross-cultural aspects. In many cases such solutions are breakthroughs and the start of a paradigm shift. Another advantage of such solutions is that they even influence the subconscious of stakeholders problems. Only cross-cultural solutions minimize the risk of hidden problems which develop under the surface in merger projects. Especially mergers of big companies are successful if change-managers are able to transfer cross-cultural conflicts in new challenging objectives. Bridging cultural gaps by visionary leadership is the way to bring people together and to create new common innovative enterprises or departments."




Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries


Book Description

Technological innovations, sociological and consumer trends, and growing internationalization are transforming the cultural and creative industries (CCIs). These changes present new challenges for CCIs that require original and inventive answers. Innovation in the Cultural and Creative Industries analyzes the powerful strategies put in place by CCI organizations such as Nintendo, the Lascaux Cave and Daft Punk. The case studies presented in this book cover video games, books, music, museums, fashion, film and architecture. Each chapter is organized around five key points: a theoretical framework that focuses on a specific concept, a description of the methodological mechanism mobilized, a presentation of the industry concerned, the analysis of the innovative strategy and a recap of the lessons and best practices demonstrated by the case.




The Innovation Race


Book Description

If innovation is a race: Who wins? Who loses? Who gets eliminated? – and how is it possible to stay ahead of the game? The Innovation Race takes readers on a lively global adventure to explore the current state of innovation. Along the way best-selling authors Andrew and Gaia Grant search for clues on how to stay ahead in the race and design a more sustainable future. Asking the critical questions - Why do we innovate? Are we at risk of innovating for the sake of innovation? What could we be doing better? - the Grants reflect on whether, if in the race to come up with ‘the next big thing,' we may be losing the purpose behind the process. They then outline how to navigate the key paradoxical challenges that can either frustrate or fuel innovation to change the game. By taking the latest academic research and presenting it in an accessible way, the Grants present a compelling case for forging a new path for the future. The Innovation Race provides concrete strategies to support purpose-driven sustainable innovation through deep cultural transformation. A unique profiling tool reveals current organisation positioning along with potential opportunities and challenges. A practical culture change model then provides clear direction for proactive change. With economists estimating that up to 80 per cent of growth comes from new ideas and innovations, this thought-provoking book provides the strategies and tools to learn how to create an innovation culture for long term success. Identify your own sweet spot for innovative thinking Learn the strategies to transform your organisation Engage and motivate employees toward innovative action Excel in implementing a deep cultural shift The Innovation Race will make you reassess what you assumed you knew about innovation, help boost the innovation process to new levels and bring your organisation to the forefront.