Creativity: Burst of Inspiration or Careful Research and Revision?

Keith Sawyer reminds us that much of what we think we know about artistic creativity is wrong:

You’ve probably heard lots of stories about famous creators who supposedly created an entire work in a fit of inspiration, generating something so perfect that they never modified it. Mozart is said to have composed in bursts of inspiration (you can see it in the movie Amadeus); the Romantic poet Samuel Coleridge has the same reputation. And guess what? These stories are just as false as the myths about Jackson Pollock.

• Music historians have known since the 1960s that “Mozart’s creative process was controlled by a consistently practical approach to the business aspects of music” and that “his manuscripts show evidence of careful editing, revision, and hard work” (Explaining Creativity page 339).
• Coleridge experts have known since the 1920s that he fabricated his own stories about writing poems in a fit of inspiration. The famous poem “Kubla Khan,” for example–which Coleridge claims to have written in a drug-induced haze–went through many revisions that still exist. Among his Romantic-era colleagues, Coleridge was so famous for making up false stories about inspiration, they would often tease him about it (Explaining Creativity page 322).

No great work ever emerges fully formed from the mind. People become known as “exceptional creators” not because of the power of their inspiration, but because of the intensity and dedication of their work process; because of their ability to stay focused through multiple revisions; and because of their ability to negotiate a zigzag path from the first glimmer of an idea to the final full-fledged work.

The same applies to entrepreneurial creativity. This relates to the challenges posed by the bricolage and effectuation approaches to the opportunity-discovery model that has dominated the entrepreneurship research literature. Ideas for projects, activities, and new firms may occur to us in a flash of insight, but they do not constitute “entrepreneurship” until the hard work of acquiring, deploying, and reconfiguring resources takes place.

Entrepreneurial Missouri

We’ve written before on entrepreneurial activities in our home state. Here’s a Forbes piece from Kauffman’s Lesa Mitchell celebrating Kansas City as the heart of an entrepreneurial ecosystem:

Kansas City is not only in the heart of America, it is in the heart of what’s known as the Silicon Prairie. Opportunities for educational, experiential and entrepreneurial growth continually expand in our urban core, attracting innovators of all ages and interests. Maker Faire KC, one of only four cities outside of California to hold a major Maker event this year, brings inventors, builders and dreamers from varied fields together, helping them create the relationships that build and sustain entrepreneurial success. The promise of the world’s fastest Internet access via Google Fiber is attracting innovators to KC from around the country and helped inspire the just-emerged entrepreneurial neighborhood, KC Startup Village, and Home for Hackers. Startup Weekends are a regular happening here, and the Kauffman Foundation’s own 1 Million Cups and Kauffman FastTrac provide unequalled education and networking opportunities to help entrepreneurs start and grow their companies.

McQuinn Center in the News

Sunday’s Columbia Tribune ran an excerpt from my recent book chapter on entrepreneurship and policy, under the provocative title “Get Government Out of the Way: Entrepreneurs Need Freedom to Prosper.” The longer essay isn’t available online but you can read chunks courtesy of Google Books.

Addendum: I discussed the essay, and entrepreneurship and policy more generally, on the November 19 episode of the Denver-based Start-Up Show.

Ivo Zander at Missouri, on Art and Entrepreneurship

Ivo Zander is a keynote speaker at the Cultural Bricolage conference co-sponsored by the McQuinn Center. Zander is Anders Wall Professor of Entrepreneurship at the Department of Business Studies, Uppsala University. He speaks Tuesday, November 13, 10:15-11:15, Stotler Lounge, Memorial Union, on “Art and Entrepreneurship: Together and Apart.” Come join us!

Shaker Zahra at Missouri, Friday 19 October

Hibbs/Middlebush Speaker 2012

Shaker A. Zahra

Department Chair, Robert E. Buuck Chair of Entrepreneurship, Professor of Strategy & Organization, and the Academic Director of the Gary S. Holmes Entrepreneurship Center in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota

“Creation of Novelty: Integrative Capability and Knowledge Conversion”

Friday, 19 October
205 Cornell Hall
2:00-3:30PM

Novelty is a key source of strategic heterogeneity, the foundation of competitive advantage in fast paced markets. Whether in products, processes, organizational or business models, novelty is grounded in a firm’s knowledge, which is often abstract and cannot be readily used to create novelty. This makes it essential for companies to translate (“convert”) this knowledge into more concrete concepts that they integrate to generate novelty. In this study, I empirically illustrate the powerful effect of having an organizational-wide integrative capability on converting the knowledge embodied in a firm’s portfolio of patents into radically new products. Preliminary analyses show that complex non-linear relationships exist between the knowledge domain breadth and unrelatedness of the patent portfolio with new product radicalness. Closeness to the state of art/science is positively related to novelty. Implications for building the knowledge conversion and integrative capabilities of the firm as well as the knowledge and capability perspectives are discussed.

__________________________

Shaker A. Zahra is the Department Chair, Robert E. Buuck Chair of Entrepreneurship and Professor of Strategy & Organization in the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota, where he is also the Academic Director of the Gary S. Holmes Entrepreneurship Center. He has been a visiting or guest professor at several universities around the globe. He also holds the 3TU Chair in International Entrepreneurship at the University of Twente, the Netherlands.

Professor Zahra’s research focuses on: entrepreneurship in global technology industries international entrepreneurship, and capability development. His research has appeared in leading journals that include the Academy of Management Journal, Academy of Management Review, Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Journal of Management, Journal of International Business Studies), Journal of Management Studies, Journal of Business Venturing, Journal of Organizational Behavior, Decision Sciences, Information Systems Research, Industrial & Corporate Change, Research Policy, Human Relations, Academy of Management Learning & Education, Academy of Management Executive, and Academy of Management Perspectives, among others. Dr. Zahra has also published or (co) edited 12 books and conference proceedings.  Dr. Zahra’s research has received several grants and awards for excellent Research, Teaching and Services from national and international organizations.

Summary of Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment, chapters 4-7

Following up the previous post; John Dellape’s summary of chapter 4 — probably the heart of the book — is here, and his summary of chapters 5-7 is here. Enjoy, and thanks John!

Summary of Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment, chapters 1-3

Thanks to John Dellape for this useful summary of Organizing Entrepreneurial Judgment: A New Approach to the Firm. Here he summarizes chapters 1-3. The rest will come soon. These summaries appeared earlier on the Hans Economics blog.

See also the Facebook page for the book, and various discussions on Organizations and Markets.

Interview with Kevin Langley, Chair of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization

“Is entrepreneurship really the answer to the world’s problems?” the New York Times asks Kevin Langley, head of the Entrepreneurs’ Organization? Interesting passage:

A. I traveled to Egypt after the revolution to help some young technology entrepreneurs. I spent three or four days mentoring them and then they took me to Tahrir Square. And this young female entrepreneur walked us right into the middle of Tahrir Square. She told me that her brother had been killed there during the revolution.

This Egyptian woman wants to develop an app, a 911 service for traveling in third world countries. You can use the app to identify and find medical help close to you and it will alert social networks that you have been injured. That one female entrepreneur could create opportunities for hundreds of people in Egypt, which is why the revolution happened.

Q. How so?

A. The Arab Spring was started by a young entrepreneur. The guy who set himself on fire in Tunisia, Mohamed Bouazizi, was a young street vendor who had a vision of having multiple fruit carts and had a goal of buying a Toyota pickup truck to haul his fruit carts around. What was lost was his hope.

Q. Wasn’t the Arab Spring also about people in the Middle East being tired of not choosing their own leaders?

A. The point I’m making is that no one talks about the fact that he was someone who aspired to create his own economic opportunity, and because that was limited, he lost all hope.

My own take is somewhat different, though of course I recognize the importance of small business startups for economic development.

Theories of Entrepreneurship

Bob Wenzel of Economic Policy Journal and I have been having a spirited debate on alternative accounts of the entrepreneurial function, with Bob defending Israel Kirzner’s concept of entrepreneurship as alertness to profit opportunities, and me favoring the view of Frank Knight, Ludwig von Mises, and myself (among others) that sees entrepreneurship as judgmental decision-making under uncertainty.

If you want to follow along in order, the posts here here:

• Klein comments on Wenzel’s defense of Kirzner
• Wenzel responds to Klein and poses some questions
• Klein answers Wenzel’s questions
• Wenzel responds to Klein’s answers
• Klein responds to Wenzel’s response

This is not a scholarly debate filling the pages of peer-reviewed academic journals, but a lively and rapid-fire exchange of views in the blogosphere, so caveat emptor.

Interview with Dean Shepherd

The Academy of Management’s Entrepreneurship Division is hosting a series of interviews with prominent entrepreneurship scholars. Here is Indiana University’s Dean Shepherd, a leader in the field of opportunity recognition. (Can’t link to the video directly, just to the Division home page, where the interview currently appears.)