IMPROVISATIONAL CREATIVITY AND
INNOVATIVENESS OF SMES: ROLE OF
EXPLORATIVE LEARNING STRATEGY
Naser Valaei1, Yasaman Mahmoudian2
1Universiti Teknologi Malaysia-International Business School (Malaysia)
2Paris Graduate School of Management (Malaysia)
6th International Conference on Education and New Learning
Technologies (7th-9th of July, 2014), Barcelona, Spain
S
Introduction
S It is evident that the learning capabilities have a critical role in the process of
creativity and innovativeness.
S Learning can be exploitative and explorative ([5], [6]) referring the boundary
(inside or outside of organization/company) of knowledge acquisition.
S March [5] developed the organizational learning theory to imply the
importance of these learning strategies.
S It appears that explorative learning strategy facilitate improvisational
creativity and compositional creativity, which consequently adds up the
innovation capability of the companies.
S The degree of agility of SMEs is gauged through their creativity capabilities
that facilitate problem solving in occasions that time matters most (crises
situations).
Cont.
S
It is evident that the path of innovativeness is made through the novel and creative
ideas.
S
Most of creativity theories indicate the role of creativity in innovation execution. The
antecedent of innovativeness is creativity that can be compositional or improvisational
([1], [2]).
S
Vera and Crossan [3] considered improvisational creativity as a creative process as
long as it has novelty regardless of its successive or failure. The feature of
improvisational creativity is shaped by the time factor.
S
Improvisational creativity takes place when the degree of novelty is high and there is a
time constraint as well. But in compositional creativity the degree of novelty is low
and there is no time constraint that makes it as a routine in a daily work of employees.
S
Explorative learning involves absorbing novel knowledge and information outside the
current job [6]. It is postulated that external learning has an important role in the
process of creativity and innovativeness
Literature Review
S Exploration refers to “search, variation, risk taking, experimentation,
play, flexibility, and discovery”. By virtue of these terms, a definition
to explorative learning can be given as the utilization of external
knowledge and technologies (from external environment) as an
alternative to business.
S Sternberg [19] considers the knowledge asset the individuals possess
as an enabler of creativity practices.
S Ko and Butler ([20], [21]) claim that even those unrelated information
are important and beneficial in the process of creativity as these
disconnected piece of information can be combined with previous
knowledge and experience.
S According to Rickards et al. [23], the concept of creativity in business
is borrowed from the concept of creativity in theory of art and music.
Research Framework
H1: There is a positive relationship between explorative learning and improvisational creativity
Malaysian SMEs.
H2: There is a positive relationship between improvisational creativity and innovative capability
Malaysian SMEs.
H3: There is a positive relationship between explorative learning and compositional creativity
Malaysian SMEs.
H4: There is a positive relationship between compositional creativity and innovative capability
Malaysian SMEs.
H5: There is a positive relationship between improvisational creativity and compositional creativity.
of
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Methodology
S Population of this research is Malaysian SMEs regardless of their industry
sectors.
S The unit of study is chief executive officers, managers, other executives, and
employees.
S Data were collected through a survey questionnaire using a five-level Likert
scale. The questionnaire has been designed by Kwiksurveys.com and it was sent
to Malaysian SMEs to fill it up.
S The sample size of this study is 127 cases from online survey.
S For data descriptive analysis and demographic analysis the SPSS software is
used. Partial least square (PLS)-structural equation modeling (SEM) technique
is used to analyze the whole theoretical framework. SmartPLS software is used
to analyze the data for validity and reliability as well as hypothesis testing.
Measurement model
Validity, Reliability, and Rsquare
Path coefficient
Bootstrapping results
Bootstrapping table
Conclusion
S The R-Square value for improvisational creativity showed that 21% of changes
in this component is predicted through explorative learning.
S Therefore it can be declared that Malaysian SMEs apply explorative learning
practices for their improvisational creativity actions.
S The R-Square value for innovation implies that 29% of changes in this
component can be predicted through compositional creativity and
improvisational creativity taking into account the indirect effect of explorative
learning.
S Hypotheses 1, 2, 4, and 5 were substantiated and it indicates how explorative
learning leads to improvisational creativity, compositional creativity, and
eventually the innovative capability of Malaysian SMEs. It can be concluded
that Malaysian SMEs practice explorative learning strategies for their business
purposes and their external knowledge pool are the source of creativity and
innovation.