Integrated Framework for Understanding Creativity

Abstract

Firms understand creativity as the ability to produce novel and useful ideas, whereas innovation is understood as the process of bringing such ideas to life in the form of products, processes, or services. This definitional construct of creativity situates creativity in the context of the outcome (i.e. the creation or idea) and not the process leading to creation. In separating creativity from creation, three constructs emerge: creativity (the process), creation (the outcome) and creative (the judgement). This chapter develops an integrated framework for creativity within these three constructs and highlights implications of the framework for the firm’s strategy.