Contenu du sommaire : From Creativity to Innovation. A Cross-fertilization Process

Creative problem-solving models generally identify a problem construction stage consisting in identifying opportunities, exploring knowledge, and framing the problem. Research on creativity has indicated that problem construction is key for the creative process. In this research, we identify individual profiles showing similar preferences towards the different tasks involved in problem construction. We highlight the characteristics of personality, creative preferences, and creative self-efficacy related to these profiles. Our data was collected from 279 students in management working on solving a complex problem during a guided creative workshop. Through a dynamic cloud typological analysis, we define three clusters related to preferences on problem construction tasks that differ according to the divergent or convergent nature of the tasks. The results of this study provide a better understanding of factors related to individual commitment in problem construction.

The links between creativity and innovation remain a ‘fuzzy front end'. This study aims to better understand how creativity can lead to innovation in an entrepreneurial context. The literature on entrepreneurial creativity and its links with innovation, enriched by research on the development of an entrepreneurial mindset, is being mobilized. It generates an experiential learning oriented entrepreneurship education program. The goal here is to examine whether third spaces resulting from situations of uncertainty implemented into the curriculum make it possible to activate creativity. The aim is to obtain a useful production adapted to a context, a market. A semi-structured questionnaire is administered via a reflexive essay. Moving from the idea to innovation presupposes that the capacities of the actors are activated in capabilities. The qualitative research provides feedback on the potential activation of the capacities of students as entrepreneurs. The results show that third spaces resulting from situations of uncertainty are places that generate potentially effective conversion factors. They allow the transformation of capacities into capabilities.

Creativity is one of firms' major preoccupations, as evidenced by the diversity of creative devices designed to foster it. While the literature explains these empirical findings by highlighting their benefits or the antecedents that promote it, it pays little attention to the tensions associated with its adoption. In line with recent work, it appears that the creative device articulates both organizational creativity and organizational innovation. The organizational changes implied by the creative device lead firms to face many tensions related to the antecedents of organizational creativity and organizational innovation. This work therefore aims to identify and study the tensions resulting from the articulation between both organizational creativity and organizational innovation. We study the Créativ'Café, Schmidt Groupe's internal creative device. Through an exploratory case study, our results show that the adoption of the creative device is influenced by three main tensions: a “motivation versus commitment” tension of the participants when Créativ'Café was launched, a “creativity versus control” tension, which influenced its use, and an “integration versus autonomy”, which slowed down its sustainability.

What criteria are used to judge a creative idea? We attempt to answer this question by analyzing 57 idea pitches from two start-up weekends. Following the scientific and managerial literature, we identify four conditions intrinsically linked to the idea and three conditions linked to the presenter that could influence the evaluation of an idea. A comparative case analysis in Fuzzy Set mode highlights three configurations of sufficient conditions for the positive evaluation of a pitch. In addition, a good enunciation of the pitch is found to be a necessary condition. This research therefore shows that the intrinsic qualities of an idea are not sufficient for it to be favorably evaluated; it must also be well presented. Conversely, good presentation is not enough; the idea must have intrinsic qualities to be favorably evaluated. In addition, the physical appearance of the pitcher can be an asset in the specific context of start-up weekends.

Choosing the right mentor is one of the most important decisions in the life of any creative mind. This decision often paves the way to several aspects of an individual professional career and intellectual development. However, the choice is often made unawares and involuntarily, also because it is taken by individuals in the initial stages of their profession and with still limited information. The fact that it is often dictated by available opportunities (e.g. in which academy, school, or university a student is accepted, or which grants he or she manages to obtain) does not help. This paper invites young people to pause and to think about mentorship. It suggests assessing actual and potential mentors against a few basic questions. Perhaps also senior intellectuals, artists, and scholars will find it instructive to consider if the mentorship they provide is what their students and junior colleagues actually need

The purpose of this study is to explain the market diffusion of satellites by exploring how early adopters raise regulatory barriers to adoption. Such influence of early adopters has not been explored significantly in the literature analyzing market diffusion of industrial products. In this paper, we adopt a macro and longitudinal approach to study the case of the satellites market from 1959 to 2017. The results indicate that early adopters raise regulatory barriers that hinder market takeoff and therefore the entry of mainstream adopters. Overall, the findings show that early adopters can extend the introduction stage over decades during which time they can shape markets to their strategic goals.

This article aims to understand the extent to which social entrepreneurship contributes to the construction of a collective dimension linked to social innovation. Since 2013, this work has been based on a participant observation of eight major events dedicated to social entrepreneurship or the Shared Economy. In-depth interviews with Tunisian social entrepreneurs were also conducted in order to enrich our corpus. The results show the necessary cooperation of social entrepreneurs for a sustainable and responsible social innovation. Indeed, the analysis emphasizes that the viability and sustainability of a social innovation is based essentially on a collective construction, beyond common social values.