From ignorance to innovation: Serendipitous and purposeful mobility in creative processes – The cases of biotechnology, legal services and board games

Abstract

In this paper, we are concerned with the relationship between creativity, ignorance and mobility. We understand creativity as a social process of recombination, which is strongly shaped by the actors’ lack of knowledge (or: ignorance) and thus argue in favor of a conceptual shift: Instead of analyzing creativity from a knowledge perspective, the analytical focus is on the participants’ evolving ignorance. In a qualitative multiple-case study research of creative processes in three domains, biotechnology, legal services and board game design, we explore the time-spatial dynamics of collaboration under the influence of two distinct forms of ignorance: unrecognized and specified ignorance. Initially, participants do not know what they do not know and are unable to purposefully directed search for inspiration. In this stage, overlapping local opportunities play a significant role to afford serendipitous encounters. Creative processes take a decisive turn, once participants manage to specify their ignorance. It becomes possible to circumscribe missing expertise and to search for it more purposefully – or to intentionally refrain from further inquiry. Now mutual attraction of experts enables interaction across distance. Places deemed irrelevant are circumvented.

Transition rather than balance: Organizing constraints for collective creativity in pharmaceutical development

“…This study is conducted by means of a multiple-case design of pharmaceutical developments (Eisenhardt, 1989;Yin, 2014). Every case illustrates the development of a novel and valuable pharmaceutical compound ex-post as a collective process with a tangible creative outcome in a longitudinal account (Brinks et al, 2018(Brinks et al, , p. 1749. This was realized by constructing creativity biographies, thick narrations on the development of a pharmaceutical compound from idea to patent, which were reconstructed from multiple retrospective interviews with essential participants.…”

“…Second, transformation of constraints and creativity are considered to be closely connected in the literature (Brinks et al, 2018; Joas, 1996; Ortmann & Sydow, 2018). For instance, Lombardo and Kvålshaugen (2014) illustrate how constraint handling is inextricably intertwined with all creative action and how existing constraints are shattered in creative action for novel problem solutions.…”

“…Second, the balancing suggestion challenges the notion that change is inherent to creative processes. Ideas continually evolve as participants gain knowledge and produce failure (Brinks, Ibert, Müller, & Schmidt, 2018). Similarly, constraints constantly change during creative processes (Joas, 1996).…”

“…Second, transformation of constraints and creativity are considered to be closely connected in the literature (Brinks et al, 2018;Joas, 1996;Ortmann & Sydow, 2018). Third, organizational and management studies commonly theorize that constraint and freedom constitute a mutually exclusive dualism: the more constraint, the less freedom (Amabile, 1996;Davis & Scase, 2000;March, 1991;Sonenshein, 2016).…”

The virtual is reality! On physical and virtual space in software firms’ knowledge formation

“…The place itself becomes an interactionopportunity enhancer: social behaviour patterns develop because geographical proximity creates opportunities for frequent interactions and tacit knowledge exchange. At the same time, the local context triggers less systematic 'serendipitous encounters', which might lead to creative opportunities (Merton and Barber 2004;Brinks et al 2018).…”