Chapter 4

Entrepreneurial Creativity and

Innovation

Objectives
To provide students with a better understanding of the issues on
creativity and innovation especially those that are related to
entrepreneurship
To provide students with creativity techniques that can be applied in
their course works
LEARNING OUTCOMES
Be more open minded and ready to accept new ideas
Gain an understanding of issues on creativity, innovation and learn to
apply creativity techniques.

Introduction
Peter Drucker(1986) stated that Innovation is the specific
tool of entrepreneurs, the means by which they exploit
change as an opportunity for a different business or service.
It is capable of being presented as a disipline, capable of
being learned and capable of being practised.
The injection of creativity and innovation techniques can add
value and create competitive advantage to the business
process.

Creativeness and innovativeness are valuable assets that

can help entrepreneurs to beat their competitors by being
able to offer better quality products, at competitive prices
and with better service delivery

Creativity
Creativity is a process that can be
developed and improved(Kuratko,2009)
Creativity is the process through which
invention occurs, the enabling process
by which something new comes into
existence (Schaper and Volery,2007)
Creativity as a production of ideas for
something new that is also potentially
useful (Baron and Shane 2008)

3 perspectives of creative

Personal level creative

style, ability to identify

Group or social creativitycontribution of teams

and groups through
discussion of a crossfunvtional team

Contextual creativityprocesses, tool work

method, layou

Components of Creativity
(Bessant and Tidd,2007)

Knowledg
e
Creative
Thinking Motivation
Skills

Creativity Techniques
Brainstorm
ing

Attribute
Listing

Problem
Reversal

Forced
Analogy

Mind
Mapping

Lateral
Thinking

The process of Creativity

Knowledge
Accumulation

Incubation

Ideas

Evaluation
and
Implementati
on

Factors Influencing
Creativity
Encouragem
ent for
creativity

Mental
Block

Pressures

Autonomy

Resources

Barriers to Creativity
Overmanagement
Competition in the workplace,workers burden with
asignments.This might be caused by hectic working
environment that does not provide space for workers
to be creative

Fear of criticism
Some people fear critism, afraid that other people
critique their ideas as crazy, foolish and impractical

Stress
Happens when people feel that they are facing extraordinary
demands, constraints and uncertain about their ability to handle
task effectively(Kinicki & Williams,2003)Stress is not only drains
ones energy that could otherwise be used creatively

Personal beliefs
The main thing that hinders creative thinking is our belief that
we are not creative. It also causes us to limit the way in which
we perceive and process information from others

Types of Innovation

Invention-The creation of a new product, service or process

Extension-New use or different application of an already exixting product,
service or process
Duplication-Creative replication of existing concept
Synthesis-Combination of existing concepts and factors into a
new formulation or use

Sources of Innovation

Unexpected or
Occurence
Eg discovery of
penicillin
eg 3M product,
Post-it-notes

New-Knowledge
Concept
Eg the discovery of
nanotechnology

Changes in
Demographics
Eg age,education
levels, income,
consumer
preference and
geographical
location

Process Needs
Eg
barcode,computeri
zed inventory
control and
accounting system

3 Phases of a Simplified Innovation

Process
Conception

Implementation

Marketing

Requirement analysis
Idea generation
Idea evaluation
Project Planning

Development/construction
Prototype development
Pilot application
Testing

Production
Market Lauch and penetration
(national/international)