Creativity and Learning in Innovation Processes

Abstract

This chapter aims to explore, from the point of view of creativity and learning, what factors affect innovation in a small and path-dependent country such as Estonia in Eastern Europe. Past dependency is presented in the framework of developments in various areas and this chapter provides an overview of main trends in three periods: Soviet, post-Soviet, and European Union era in Estonia. Main trends are analyzed in the framework of Amabile’s modified model of creativity. This approach gives possibility to differentiate between individual and organizational level processes, whereby individual is seen as gateway to innovation and organizational level is considered to be for the assimilation of influences. Research is based on the analysis of relevant literature, and mind mapping is used to identify the factors and their potential influence. As the result of analysis three models are proposed. These aggregate the comparison of periods on one hand, on the other, impacts from culture, education, economic, and political issues on creativity and learning.