In search of new ideas: Understanding and managing creativity in inter-organizational context - the case of relationships between a parent company and subsidiary companies
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| Year of publication | 2017 |
| Type | Article in Proceedings |
| Conference | IFKAD 2017: 12TH INTERNATIONAL FORUM ON KNOWLEDGE ASSET DYNAMICS: KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY: RESILIENCE, CREATIVITY AND CO-CREATION |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Keywords | Interfirm collaboration networks; creativity; innovativeness; corporation; construction and civil engineering domain |
| Description | Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to contribute to the development of an understanding of how to foster creativity in networks of collaborative organisations by identifing causal factors that are relevant for supporting creativity in such networks as well as by explicating the operative activities that can help to shape positive organizational and economic outcomes, especially via the influence of innovations. The paper, therefore, studies the practice of lived creativity management within a special interorganizational network in the domain of construction and civil engineering consisting of a parent company and its subsidiary companies. Design/methodology/approach - In our research we concentrated on the question of what kind of activities and factors do support creativity within a specific interorganizational context. The studied interorganizational network consisted of a parent company on the one side and of its subsidiary companies on the other. Three main dimensions proved to be important for the management of creativity in such networks: common goals, network organizational culture and project diversity based upon but also cultivating different kinds of expertise and social ties among firms within a network. In order to elucidate what factors and activities support creativity and innovativeness of the interorganizational network, we carried out semi-structured, in-depth interviews with managers of parent as well as subsidiary companies. This was of vital importance to an understanding of the causal factors and activities in use to support and manage creativity and produce innovation in the network. As a follow-up to these interviews, certain selected interviewees were further asked to broaden our understanding of what was relevant but probably not yet well discussed during the first interviews. Further, interviewees remained in close dialogue with the team of academic researchers. Originality/value - This methodology puts in evidence how creativity generating positive organizational and economic results can occur in multiple kinds of collaboration across diverse firms in an interorganizational network. Practical implications - The outcomes of the application provide some new insights into how a multiplicity of firms connected within a network can effectively collaborate towards instantiating and supporting creativity and innovation. These insights have implications for the literature on collaboration, creativity and innovation in and by interorganizational networks. Perhaps even more importantly, these outcomes are useful for developing practices within a network of multiple firms to achieve better results while considering the relevant factors and activities forming a successful network, and thus influencing the levels of performance in interfirm networks. |