Publications

Educators

Research Summary

Managing in the Creative Economy

In the early 21st Century, especially in developed economies, work increasingly makes use of specialized knowledge, skill, and talent and creates value through transformation of symbols and other intangible materials to achieve outcomes different from what has been... View Details

January 1994 (Revised March 1995)
Case

De Passe Entertainment and Creative Partners

By: Linda A. Hill

After 24 years at Motown Industries, Hollywood executive Suzanne de Passe has decided to go out on her own to start two new businesses. The case describes de Passe's career from her beginning as Berry Gordy's assistant at Motown Records to her presidency of Gordy/de... View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Entrepreneurship; Partners and Partnerships; Business or Company Management; Entertainment; Personal Development and Career; Entertainment and Recreation Industry; Music Industry; California

26 Aug 2024
Research & Ideas

Can AI Match Human Ingenuity in Creative Problem-Solving?

When ChatGPT and other large language models began entering the mainstream two years ago, it quickly became apparent the technology could excel at certain business functions, yet it was less clear how well artificial intelligence could handle more View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding; Information Technology; Information; Technology

June 2015
Case

The Coca-Cola Company's Case for Creative Transformation

By: Thales S. Teixeira and Elizabeth Anne Watkins

In 2013, the Coca-Cola Company was awarded Creative Marketer of the Year by the Cannes Lions Festival (known as the "Oscar of Advertising") for the first time ever in history and nearly 50 years after the Festival's inception. Just one year before that, Jonathan... View Details

Keywords: Attention Economics; Creating Connections; Digital Marketing; Marketing Innovations; Social Networks; Advertising Content; Networked Brand; Beverage Industry; Coca-Cola; Digital Innovation; Digital Transition; Marketing; Marketing Communications; Innovation Strategy; Social and Collaborative Networks; Advertising; Creativity; Consumer Products Industry

Educators

22 Aug 2011
Research & Ideas

Getting to Eureka!: How Companies Can Promote Creativity

We tend to think of the moment of insight and creativity in sudden and shocking terms: the bathtub overflowing (Archimedes), the apple beaning off the head (Newton), the bolt of lightning shivering the key at the end of a kite (Franklin).... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

23 May 2000
Research & Ideas

Minding the Muse: The Impact of Downsizing on Corporate Creativity

Not long ago, the senior management of a leading high-tech company was surprised to learn that research showed their R&D groups' creative performance to be in a prolonged slump following a corporate downsizing. The company's... View Details

Keywords: by Peter K. Jacobs

Teaching Interest

Leading Product Innovation

By: Stefan H. Thomke

For several years, Apple has ranked as the most innovative business in the world. How does this winning company continue to achieve success in its quest to develop—in the words of Steve Jobs—insanely great products? This program takes a deep dive into the latest... View Details

June 2024
Article

The Diversity Heuristic: How Team Demographic Composition Influences Judgments of Team Creativity

By: Devon Proudfoot, Zachariah Berry, Edward H. Chang and Min B. Kay

Despite mixed evidence for the relationship between demographic diversity and creativity, we propose that observers hold a lay belief that demographic diversity increases creativity and apply this lay belief in judgments about teams and their creative work. Across... View Details

Keywords: Diversity; Race; Gender; Groups and Teams; Perception; Creativity

2019
Chapter

The Art of (Creative) Thought: Graham Wallas on the Creative Process

By: Teresa M. Amabile

BOOK ABSTRACT: The Creativity Reader is a necessary companion for anyone interested in the historical roots of contemporary ideas about creativity, innovation, and imagination. It brings together a prestigious group of international experts who were tasked with... View Details

Keywords: Cognition and Thinking; Creativity

12 Oct 1999
Research & Ideas

Bright Ideas: The Creative Power of Groups

and execute truly creative solutions. Perhaps the traditional image of the creative genius working alone to create great breakthroughs is not so accurate after all. To shatter conventional wisdom about group... View Details

Keywords: by Laurie Joan Aron

December 2022
Article

Competition, Contracts, and Creativity: Evidence from Novel Writing in a Platform Market

By: Yanhui Wu and Feng Zhu

A growing number of people today are participating in the gig economy, working as independent contractors on short-term projects. We study the effects of competition on gig workers' effort and creativity on a Chinese novel-writing platform. Authors produce and sell... View Details

Keywords: Gig Workers; Platform-based Markets; Novel Writing; Creative Production; Platform Bias; Employment; Digital Platforms; Creativity; Books; Competition; Contracts

December 2014
Article

Private Equity, Jobs, and Productivity

By: Steven J. Davis, John Haltiwanger, Kyle Handley, Ron Jarmin, Josh Lerner and Javier Miranda

Private equity critics claim that leveraged buyouts bring huge job losses. To investigate this claim, we construct and analyze a new dataset that covers U.S. private equity transactions from 1980 to 2005. We track 3,200 target firms and their 150,000 establishments... View Details

Keywords: Private Equity; Leveraged Buyouts; Performance Productivity; Jobs and Positions; United States

2014
Working Paper

Product to Platform Transitions: Organizational Identity Implications

By: Elizabeth J. Altman and Mary Tripsas

Organizations are increasingly recognizing that value they once derived from offering standalone products can be significantly enhanced if they transition to platform-based businesses that harness the innovative capabilities of complementors. While the competitive... View Details

Keywords: Organizational Change; Organizational Identity; Ecosystems; Complementors; Managing Innovation; Organizational Change and Adaptation; Multi-Sided Platforms; Innovation and Management; Organizational Culture

SSRN

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1998
Article

Looking Inside the Fishbowl of Creativity: Verbal and Behavioral Predictors of Creative Performance

By: J. Ruscio, D. M. Whitney and T. M. Amabile

This study set out to identify specific task behaviors that predict observable product creativity in three domains and to identify which of those behaviors mediate the well-established link between intrinsic motivation and creativity. One-hundred fifty-one... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Behavior

Research Summary

Designing Productive Zones of Privacy

By: Ethan S. Bernstein

A common theme that integrates my research and course development is how increasingly transparent workplaces can improve productivity and performance by putting up certain boundaries to observation. While the research above empirically and theoretically explores the... View Details

Keywords: Transparency; Privacy; Field Experiments; Design; Organizational Design; Performance

23 Apr 2012
Research & Ideas

How to Brand a Next-Generation Product

notice a new name.” Like Apple, most consumer-centric companies deal with the dilemma of how to brand the next- generation of an existing product. Product upgrades make up the majority of corporate research and development activity.... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

05 Jul 2006
Working Paper Summaries

The Power of Stars: Do Stars Drive Success in Creative Industries?

Keywords: by Anita Elberse; Entertainment & Recreation; Motion Pictures & Video; Financial Services

28 Apr 2022
Research & Ideas

Can You Buy Creativity in the Gig Economy?

percent of books generate enough income for an author to live on. The pay structure matters Zhu and Wu tracked the popularity of e-novels based on reader clicks and purchases, and measured a writer’s productivity based on how frequently... View Details

Keywords: by Pamela Reynolds

August 2015 (Revised June 2019)
Case

Shonda Rhimes' ShondaLand

By: Anita Elberse and Henry McGee

In January 2015, superstar television creator Shonda Rhimes, whose production company ShondaLand dominates American television's most competitive and lucrative night with three shows in primetime on network ABC's Thursday night, is plotting the future. One challenge... View Details

Keywords: Entertainment; Television; Broadcasting; Creative Industries; Television Industry; Product Portfolio Management; Superstar; Talent Management; Television Entertainment; Media; Creativity; Marketing; Talent and Talent Management; Personal Development and Career; Media and Broadcasting Industry; United States

Educators