SOI-044 Organizing for novelty, creativity and innovation

The objective of this course is to provide students with the distinctive elements of novelty, creativity and innovation and to derive organizational and strategic implications for their generation.

The course will drive students through the distinction between novelty, creativity and innovation by defining the key characteristics pointed out in the literature. Particular attention will be devoted to discuss the role of randomness and intentionality in the process of novelty generation and to analyze old and new organizational, inter-organizational and non-organizational forms and strategies for searching for directed and emergent novelty. In doing so, the course also defines the key characteristics of problem crowdsourcing and open innovation.

Teamwork activities will ease the investigation of key literature and the elaboration of implications for the generation of novelty, creativity and innovation. Students will be asked to engage in readings and in teamwork.

• Novelty, creativity and innovation: are they all the same?
• Is it possible and how can we organize to generate them?
• To what extent can the generation of novelty, creativity and innovation be engineered (i.e.
  designed and controlled)?
• What is the role of luck and randomness in their generation and how can the process of their
  emergence be directed and intentional?
• New organizational, inter-organizational and non-organizational forms and strategies for
  searching for directed and emergent novelty. Problem crowdsourcing and open innovation.

Lectures and teamwork.

Parts of (TbA):

• Frigotto, M. L. (2018). Understanding Novelty in Organizations. A Research Path Across Agency and Consequences. Palgrave Macmillan.
• Dawson, P., & Andriopoulos, C. (2018). Managing change, creativity and innovation. Sage.
• Other readings will be announced at the beginning of the course.