Publications

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August 2002
Article

Creativity Under the Gun

By: Teresa Amabile, Constance N. Hadley and Steven J. Kramer

If you're like most managers, you've worked with people who swear they do their most creative work under tight deadlines. You may use pressure as a management technique, believing it will spur people on to great leaps of insight. You may even manage yourself this way.... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Innovation and Invention; Time Management; Working Conditions; Performance Evaluation

October 2019
Case

David Yin's Vegetarian Mission

By: Boris Groysberg and Evan M.S. Hecht

After the establishment of his critically-acclaimed upscale vegetarian restaurant, King’s Joy, in Beijing, chef and entrepreneur David Yin must decide whether or not to expand to other locations or continue to invest in his existing location in order to fulfill his... View Details

Keywords: Restaurant; Restaurant Industry; Creative Ability; Creative Industries; Values; Entrepreneurship; Creativity; Food; Values and Beliefs; China

Educators

09 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Cultural Disharmony Undermines Workplace Creativity

In today's global work environment, it's a given that companies need culturally diverse teams to succeed. Both scientific studies and common sense tell us that having people with different viewpoints onboard increases the creativity that... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

07 Dec 2011
Research & Ideas

Are Creative People More Dishonest?

monetary gain than those in the control group. "These were simple studies, but they were powerful in showing that our ability to justify things is significantly greater if we are in a creative mindset... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel; Advertising

17 Apr 2019
Research & Ideas

How Managers Stifle Creativity

Bryant Ford Professor of Business Administration, Emerita, reflected on her research and its impact in an essay in Perspectives on Psychological Science, Educating Leaders Who Make a Difference in the World (pdf). More recently, she discussed how artificial... View Details

Keywords: by Danielle Kost

April 2014
Article

Evil Genius? How Dishonesty Can Lead to Greater Creativity

By: F. Gino and S. Wiltermuth

We propose that dishonest and creative behavior have something in common: they both involve breaking rules. Because of this shared feature, creativity may lead to dishonesty (as shown in prior work), and dishonesty may lead to creativity (the hypothesis we tested in... View Details

Keywords: Moral Sensibility; Creativity; Attitudes

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14 May 2008
Research & Ideas

Getting Down to the Business of Creativity

for Linear Air, but for the industry to get off the ground, is an interesting creative challenge for the entrepreneur." The ability to respond quickly to changing market conditions also demands high... View Details

Keywords: by Julia Hanna; Retail; Apparel & Accessories; Fashion; Entertainment & Recreation

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 Feb 2009
Research & Ideas

Creative Entrepreneurship in a Downturn

new ventures, this creates huge possibilities for an entrepreneur to identify the opportunities, get creative about assembling resources, and go after them with the knowledge that the potential for competitive advantage will be greater... View Details

Keywords: by Martha Lagace

2011
Book

The Progress Principle: Using Small Wins to Ignite Joy, Engagement, and Creativity at Work

By: Teresa M. Amabile and Steve J. Kramer

The most effective managers have the ability to build a cadre of employees who have great inner work lives-consistently positive emotions; strong motivation; and favorable perceptions of the organization, their work, and their colleagues. The worst managers undermine... View Details

2017
Article

High-Stakes Innovation: When Collaboration Undermines (and Sometimes Enhances) Innovation

By: Johnathan Cromwell and Heidi K. Gardner

Organizations must constantly innovate, or else they may suffer consequences that range in severity. In low-stakes situations, they may lose a small opportunity for growth; and in high-stakes situations, they may lose significant market share that threatens their... View Details

Keywords: Innovation; Collaboration; Teams; Creativity Teams; Collaborative Innovation and Invention; Groups and Teams; Creativity

Teaching Interest

Overview

The Business of Aesthetics is a new course for second-year students who are considering careers in sectors and companies whose long-term financial value is built on their ability to deliver aesthetic value. Such companies are rewarded not only for eliciting a high... View Details

Keywords: Aesthetics; Luxury Goods; Retail; Consumer Goods; Design; Creativity; Consumer Behavior; Brand Building; Experience Goods; Fashion Industry; Retail Industry; Technology Industry; Food and Beverage Industry; Beauty and Cosmetics Industry; Travel Industry

March 2012
Article

The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can Be More Dishonest

By: F. Gino and D. Ariely

Creativity is a common aspiration for individuals, organizations, and societies. Here, however, we test whether creativity increases dishonesty. We propose that a creative personality and a creative mindset promote individuals' ability to justify their behavior, which,... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Ethics

March 2024
Article

Investigation of Divergent Thinking among Surgeons and Surgeon Trainees in Canada (IDEAS): A Mixed-methods Study

By: Alex Thabane, Tyler McKechnie, Vikram Arora, Goran Calic, Jason W Busse, Ranil Sonnadara and Mohit Bhandari

Objective: To assess the creative potential of surgeons and surgeon trainees, as measured by divergent thinking. The secondary objectives were to identify factors associated with divergent thinking, assess confidence in creative problem-solving and the perceived effect... View Details

Keywords: Creativity; Cognition and Thinking; Surveys; Health Industry

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2011
Working Paper

The Dark Side of Creativity: Original Thinkers Can Be More Dishonest

By: Francesca Gino and Dan Ariely

Creativity is a common aspiration for individuals, organizations, and societies. Here, however, we test whether creativity increases dishonesty. We propose that a creative personality and creativity primes promote individuals' motivation to think outside the box and... View Details

Keywords: Ethics; Behavior; Creativity; Motivation and Incentives; Personal Characteristics

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25 Jan 2011
First Look

First Look: Jan. 25

motivation (Study 3) and greater ability to justify their dishonest behavior (Study 4). Finally, a field study constructively replicates these effects and demonstrates that individuals who work in more View Details

Keywords: Sean Silverthorne

October 2008 (Revised November 2008)
Case

Miles Davis: Kind of Blue

Examines how successful companies can “jump to the next S-curve” through an analogy to the life's work of Miles Davis, especially his paradigm-shattering Kind of Blue album in 1959. Students consider how and why Davis, who had already proven he was tops in his field,... View Details

Keywords: Disruptive Innovation; Creativity; Music Entertainment; Music Industry

Educators