Creativity and Innovation

Key Concepts in Creativity Research

As is the case with many other topics in the broader field of global studies, creativity research is interdisciplinary and multifaceted. It is therefore important to trace these different facets and perspectives before dealing with the global dimension of creativity.

Two perspectives on creativity are often distinguished: “small-c” versus “big-C” creativity, or personal versus cultural creativity. Although the former concerns something that is new only to the creator such as children's play, the latter denotes something new for humankind. This distinction is important because it defines that creativity is not only an attribute of a few select geniuses or the basis for brand-new innovations in science and technology. Instead, it can be part of our everyday life, allowing us to adapt to rapid cultural evolutionary changes. At first sight, it seems easy to draw a line between the two perspectives. In many instances, however, this distinction is not all that clear. For example, companies often introduce new processes that really are adaptations from other companies (Ronald S. Burt showed the importance of networks across so-called structural holes for such information brokerage). The new process is certainly an innovation for the company, but how much change is needed to speak of a real innovation (big-C) instead of a mere transfer of an idea? A similar question develops with regard to the patenting of indigenous knowledge.

Mel Rhodes proposed in 1961 a later popular way to structure the different approaches to creativity with his four Ps: person, process, press (environment), and product. Person includes research, mainly from psychology, on personal characteristics or personalities of creative people. Process deals with behavior and the generation of new ideas. The still influential stage model of Graham Wallas from 1926 plays an important part in this. He distinguishes among the four/five stages of preparation, incubation, intimation (a substage), illumination, and verification. Press, comprising mostly the research from sociology and economics, looks at the interaction of people and their environment. Teresa M. Amabile, for example, analyzed promoters and inhibitors of creativity in different organizational settings. The category product, finally, summarizes research about the output of creativity such as patents.

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