CREATIVITY & INNOVATION

LECTURE ONE:
Creativity, Invention and
Innovation
 Learning Outcomes

• Know the difference among creativity,

invention and innovation
• Understand how intelligence, knowledge,
and experience relate to creativity
• Recognise the different types of innovation
• Understand the different models of
innovation

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 What is ‘creativity’?

• Meaning of creativity
– Having the power and the ability to create (American
Heritage Dictionary)
– Characterised by originality and expressiveness;
imaginative (American Heritage Dictionary)
– The ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules,
patterns, relationships, or the like, and to create
meaningful new ideas, forms, methods,
interpretations, etc.; originality, progressiveness, or
imagination (Random House Unabridged Dictionary)
– Making of the new and re-arranging the old

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 What is ‘innovation’?

• The meaning of innovation

– The act of introducing something ‘new’?
• Question: What is ‘new’? How new is new?
– The implementation of creative inspiration
– Process of creating something and making it work
• IMPORTANT NOTE:
– To determine whether something is an innovation, it
must be seen within a context
• Question: Whether do we see this in a objective or
subjective context?

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Difference between creativity
and innovation
• Trott (2002) wrote that:
– Creativity is the thinking of novel and
appropriate ideas
– Innovation is the successful implementation of
those ideas within an organisation

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Intelligence and Creativity

• Do you have to be highly intelligent in order to

be creative?
– What is ‘intelligence’?
• Academic intelligence
• Literary intelligence
• Numerical intelligence
• Spatial intelligence
• Social intelligence
• Emotional intelligence
– According to Edward De Bono, intelligence is the
capability of the mind to process certain information.
– Intelligence can be analogous to computers.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Knowledge, Experience and
Creativity
• Does creativity depend on knowledge and
experience?
– Yes
• But knowledge and experience alone will not help unless
we know how to use them to achieve our creative purpose
• Knowledge and experience are merely tools to be used
• Sometimes knowledge and experience can bind us – put a
limit to our creative process e.g. working with familiarity,
groupthink
– These limitations occur due to our socialisation process –
the conditioning resulted by the social pressure to conform
and comply
• In order for knowledge and experience to be useful in
achieving creative output, they need to be accompanied
with the right attitudes

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Types of Thinking

• Reproductive thinking
– Based on experience and past success -
past-orientated
– Rigidity, unoriginal thinking – develop
‘mindset’
• Productive thinking
– Multi-perspective thinking
– Creation of unconventional, unique ideas

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Are these innovations?

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Are these innovations?

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Are these innovations?

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Are these innovations?

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Different Types of Innovations

Type of Innovation Example

Product innovation The development of a new or improved product
Process innovation The development of a new manufacturing process such as
Pilkington’s float glass process
Organisational A new venture division, a new internal communication
innovation system, introduction of a new accounting procedure
Management innovation TQM (total quality management) systems, BPR (business
process re-engineering)
Production innovation Quality circles, just-in-time (JIT) manufacturing system, new
production planning software, new inspection system
Commercial/marketing New financing arrangements, e.g. Paypal, mobile phone
wallet, ‘Touch n Go’ card, new sales approach, e.g. direct
marketing, buzz marketing, viral marketing
Service Innovation Telephone financial service

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Difference between innovation
and invention
• Myers and Marquis (1969) gave the
following definition for innovation
– Innovation is not a single action but a total
process of interrelated sub processes. It is
not just the conception of a new idea, nor the
invention of a new device, nor the
development of a new market. The process is
all these things acting in an integrated fashion

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 AN EXAMPLE OF AN INVENTION

• Scientist and development engineers at a

household cleaning products company had
been working for many months on developing a
new lavatory cleaning product. They had
developed a liquid that when sprayed into the
toilet pan, on contact with water, would fizz
and sparkle.
• The effect was to give the impression of tough,
active cleaning product. The company applied
for a patent and further developments and
market research were planned.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 AN EXAMPLE OF AN INVENTION

• However, initial results both from technical and

market specialists led to the abandonment of
the product.
• The preliminary market feedback suggested a
fear of such a product on the part of consumers.
This was because the fizz and sparkle looked
too dramatic and frightening.
• Furthermore, additional technical research
revealed a short shelf life for the mixture.
• This is a clear example of an invention that did
not progress beyond the organisation to a
commercial product.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Role of Science and Technology in
Innovation

• What is the difference between science and

technology?
• Trott (2003, p. 14) said that
– Science as systematic and formulated knowledge
while
– Technology is often seen as application of science.
• Technology is not an accident of nature; it is the product of
deliberate actions by human beings.
• Technology is knowledge applied to products or production
processes.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Innovation As A Set of Processes

• Innovation is not an
activity but a set of
processes.
• It is influenced by
many factors within
the organisation.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 General Overview of the Innovation
Process

Other Firms

Interaction
The firm’s innovating
architecture

Technology and
The firm’s Individuals product effects
function

Interaction

Knowledge and
technology provider Effects
MICRO ENVIRONMENT

MACRO ENVIRONMENT

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Popular Views of Innovation

• Trott (2003) has identified the following

popular views of innovation
– Serendipity
– Linear model
– Simultaneous coupling model
– Interactive model
– Network model

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Serendipity

• Innovation occurs due to luck and unexpected

discoveries.
• Uncovering a major new invention leading to fame and
fortune.
• However, serendipity is rare because in order to
recognise the significance of an advance, one would
need to have some prior knowledge in that area.
• Most discoveries are the result of people have had a
fascination with a particular area of science or
technology and it is following extended efforts on their
part that advances are made.

Louis Pasteur said “Chance favours the prepared mind”.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Linear Models of Innovation
Creation of new
Consumers express their
knowledge, dominated Technology
needs and wants
by universities and large development, dominated
through the
science-based by organisations
consumption of
organisation
products

Science and Technological Needs of the

technology Development Market
base

• What activities influence innovation?

• What are the internal processes that affect a company’s
ability to innovate?
– Innovation occurs through the interaction of the science
(dominated by universities and industry), technological
development (dominated by industry) and the needs of the
market was a significant step forward.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Linear Model of Innovation
TECHNOLOGY PUSH

Research and Manufacturin

Development g
Marketing User

MARKET PULL

Research & Manufacturin

Marketing
Development g
User

– Traditionally, the innovation process has been

viewed as a sequence of separable stages
or activities
• Technology-push model (Technology driven
approach)
• Market-pull model (Customer driver approach)
Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides
 Linear Model of Innovation
– Assumed that
• scientist make unexpected discoveries,
technologists apply them to develop product ideas
and engineers and designers turn them into
prototypes for testing
• marketing and sales will promote the product to the
potential consumer
– Marketplace was a passive recipient for the fruits of R&D
– This model is notably applied in the pharmaceutical
industry but not applicable to many other industries

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Simultaneous Coupling Model

• Simultaneous coupling argued

– that by looking at whether innovations are stimulated
by technology, customer, need, manufacturing or a
host of other factors, including competition, misses
the point.
– that the linear model is only able to offer an
explanation where the initial stimulus for innovation
was born, that is, where the trigger for the idea or
need was initiated.
– that the point of commencement for innovation is not
know in advance

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Interactive Model

• Innovation occur as the result of the interaction

of the marketplace, the science base and the
organisation’s capabilities.
• There is no explicit starting point.
• Innovation can arise from wide variety of points.
• Overall innovation process can be thought as a
complex set of communication paths over which
knowledge is transferred.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Interactive Model

• Links together the technology-push and market-pull

models
• Innovation occurs as the result of interaction of:
– the marketplace,
– the science base
– organisation’s capabilities
• Like the coupling model there is no explicit starting
point
– The use of information flows is used to explain how innovations
transpire and they can arise from a wide variety of points
– Establishing departmental functions to perform the main tasks of
business strategy, R&D, manufacturing and marketing is
inadequate to achieve the objective of successful innovation.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Interactive Model

• The interactive model describe that the

innovation can be regarded as a logically
sequential, though not necessarily continuous,
process that can be divided into series of
functionally distinct but interacting and
interdependent stages.
• The overall innovation process can be thought of
as a complex set of communication paths
over which knowledge is transferred.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Interactive Model

• At the centre of the model are the

organisational functions of R&D,
engineering and design, manufacturing
and marketing and sales.
• At first it may appear to be a linear model
but the flow of communication is not
necessarily linear.
– There is provision of feedback and the
linkages with science base and the
marketplace occur between all functions
Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides
 Interactive Model

• Generation of ideas are dependent on

inputs from three basic components:
– The organisation capabilities
– The needs in society and the marketplace
– The latest science and technology or
advances in society

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Innovation as a management
process

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Innovation as a management
process

– Scientist and engineers within the firm will be

continually interacting with fellow scientists in
universities and other firms about scientific
and technological developments.
– The marketing function will need to interact
with suppliers, distributors, customers and
competitors to ensure that the day-to-day
activities of understanding the customer
needs and getting products to customers can
be achieved.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Innovation as a management
process

– Business planners and senior management

will likewise communicate with a wide variety
of firms and other external institutions, such
as government departments, suppliers and
customers.
• All these information flows contribute to
the wealth of knowledge held by the
organisation.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Innovation as a management
process

• These functions need to be effectively

managed and to effectively manage these
functions, the management
– needs to pay attention to the interaction of
internal functions within the organisation and
– the interaction of those functions with the
external environment.

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 In conclusion – how do firms
achieve successful innovation?
• Effective communication
• Interaction of the function
• Interaction with the external environment
– Need the right kind of organisational structure
– Need the right kind of organisational culture
– Need the right kind of systems
• Reward and recognition system for encouragement and
support
• Information management system
• Therefore, in the future lectures, we will discuss
about the appropriate structure, culture and
systems to encourage creativity and promote the
innovative process
Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides
 Organisational Heritage
• According to Trott (2003, p. 23), organisational heritage
– Is sometimes known as the organisational knowledge base
• Note – this does not mean the culture of the organisation.
• It represents a combination of the organisation’s knowledge base
(established and built up over the years of operating) and the organisation’s
unique architecture.
• It provides the company with powerful competitive advantage.
– What is ‘competitive advantage’?
• It can refers to the core competencies of the organisation.
– What are ‘core competencies’?
• Organisational heritage refers to the accumulative intellectual effort
that brings upon competitive advantage of a business and which
often forms the core competencies of an organisation resulted from
the years of experience in operation.
– Organisational heritage determines the organisation’s capability of what
the organisation can do in the future.
• In other words, what the organisation can do in the future will depend to
some extent of what they have done in the past.
• Organisational heritage acts as a framework for decision making in
regard to innovation functions, R&D direction and new product
development.
Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides
 Possible examination question

1. Do you think innovation is dependent on intelligence?

Give justifications for your answers. (6 marks)
2. Distinguish between reproductive thinking and
productive thinking. Which type of thinking is
necessary for creativity and why? (8 marks)
3. What is the meaning of ‘organisational heritage’? (5
marks)
4. Explain how organisational heritage influences the
innovation process. (7 marks)
5. Explain how technology differs from science, yet still
does not equal innovation. (7 marks)

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides

 Possible examination question
6. Identify and briefly explain the five (5) different types of innovation using
relevant examples. (10 marks)
7. With examples, distinguish between invention and innovation. (6 marks)
8. What is the difference between unsuccessful innovation and an
invention? (6 marks)
9. In the interactive model, explain what the marketplace, the science base
and the organisation’s capabilities are and how they affect the innovation
process. (12 marks)
10. Explain the meaning of ‘Innovation as a set of processes’. (8 marks)
11. Explain your understanding about innovation as a management process.
(12 marks)
12. Using the relevant diagrams, distinguish between the technology-push and
the market pull linear models of innovation. (10 marks)
13. Discuss, using the relevant diagrams, the difference between the linear
models of innovation and the interactive model. (25 marks)

Module Code and Module Title Title of Slides