A New Approach of Innovation: from the Knowledge Economy to the Theory of Creativity Applied to Territorial Development
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A New Approach of Innovation: from the Knowledge Economy to the Theory of Creativity Applied to Territorial Development Jean-Alain Héraud 1,2
Received: 11 November 2015 / Accepted: 17 June 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract The general idea of this paper is the fact that the theory of innovation cannot be completed as long as the idea of creativity is not introduced in the analysis of the cognitive processes involved. Too often, in innovation studies, novelty is considered as pure knowledge creation. The new approach of creativity in management science, economic geography, or sociology of innovation has revealed the importance of other ingredients than knowledge: entrepreneurship, serendipity, imagination, etc. In particular, creative cities are not just knowledge-based territories. For addressing the issue of creative territories, we need first to define creativity in general and in different domains: in science (discovery), technology (invention), or economy (innovation), as well as in artistic, cultural, or societal fields. We will underline the necessity to be creative in policy design as well. It is not enough to build knowledge infrastructures and to promote human capital or attract Bcreative people.^ Are there recipes for the creative governance of geographical entities? What can we learn from the application of standard policies? And from the new policy paradigms like the Smart specialization strategy of the EU? At microeconomic level, entrepreneurs and creative organizations must deal with the exploration/exploitation issues and find an acceptable tradeoff. Territories must also find relevant governance structures and procedures for the Bcreative^ design of development strategies. In this perspective, they can rely on certain actors of the innovation process, like knowledge-based business services, and some talented individuals, for implementing the necessary distributed intelligence. Keywords Innovation . Knowledge . Creativity . Entrepreneurship . Territory . Policy
* Jean-Alain Héraud [email protected]
1
BETA, Université de Strasbourg and CNRS, Strasbourg, France
2
Faculté des Sciences Economiques et de Gestion, 61 avenue de la Forêt Noire, F-67000 Strasbourg, France
J Knowl Econ
Introduction In this article, we start from the assumption that the theory of innovation is incomplete as long as the notion of creativity is not introduced in the description of the cognitive processes involved. In other words, we advocate the idea that a realistic socioeconomic theory of innovation cannot be reduced to pure economics of knowledge in the sense of Kenneth Arrow’s learning by doing or to the macroeconomic approach of endogenous growth (initiated by Arrow and developed by Paul Romer). In the Breal^ world, knowledge capital accumulation does not systematically work in a smooth linear way, and radical innovation completely escapes such a theoretical framework. Even the evolutionist approach (for instance Nathan Rosenberg’s learning by using or BengtÅke Lundvall’s learning by int
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