Quality & Quantity

, Volume 47, Issue 5, pp 2945–2958 | Cite as

Darwin and Lamarck in creative ideas: a qualitative study of inventors’ stories

Article
First Online:

Abstract

Knowledge creation has been enormously emphasized in recent years as the critical factor for long term economic growth. Knowledge creation can affect individuals and societies by increasing economic opportunities. In order to see the knowledge creation process, individuals who have different approaches to the problems can be a starting point to understand creativity in inventions. Accordingly, this study aims to understand the generation process of inventive ideas from inventors’ point of view. Inventors in cancer research are interviewed by asking the question of how they came up with their inventive ideas. From inventors’ stories six themes are developed: stumbled into solution, like raising arm, tried different things, open to variety, possibility of error, and extension from previous knowledge.

Keywords

Invention Creativity Phenomenological study Evolutionary theory 
This is a preview of subscription content, log in to check access.

Preview

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.

References

  1. Amabile T.M.: The Social Psychology of Creativity. Springer, New York (1983)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  2. Amabile T.M.: Creativity in Context: Update to “The Social Psychology of Creativity”. Westview, Boulder (1996)Google Scholar
  3. Basberg B.: Patents and the measurement of technological change: a survey of literature. Res. Policy 16, 131–141 (1987)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  4. Beinhocker E.: The Origin of Wealth. Harvard Business School Press, Boston (2006)Google Scholar
  5. Campbell D.T.: Blind variation and selective retention in creative thought as in other knowledge process. Psychol. Rev. 67, 380–400 (1960)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  6. Csikszentmihalyi M.: Creativity: Flow and Psychology of Discovery and Invention. HarperCollins, New York (1996)Google Scholar
  7. Gedo M.M.: Picasso: Art as Autobiography. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1980)Google Scholar
  8. Gruber H.E.: Darwin on Man: A Psychological Study of Scientific Creativity, 2nd edn. University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1981)Google Scholar
  9. Guilford J.P.: Creativity. Am. Psychol. 5, 444–454 (1950)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  10. Hadamard J.: The Psychology of Invention in the Mathematical Field. Princeton University Press, Princeton (1945)Google Scholar
  11. Hummel R.P.: The triumph of numbers: Knowledge and the mismeasure of management. Adm Soc 38(1), 58–78 (2006)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  12. Krider D., Ross P.: The experiences of women in a public relations firm: a phenomenological explication. J. Bus. Commun. 34(4), 437–454 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  13. Nelson B., Rawlings D.: Its own reward: a phenomenological study of artistic creativity. J. Phenomenol. Psychol. 38, 217–255 (2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
  14. Newell A., Simon H.A.: Human Problem Solving. Prentice Hall, Englewood Cliffs (1972)Google Scholar
  15. Newell A., Shaw C., Simon H.A.: The process of creative thinking. In: Gruber, H.E., Terrell, G., Wertheimer, M. (eds) Contemporary Approaches to Creative Thinking, pp. 153–189. Pergamon, New York (1962)Google Scholar
  16. Perkins D.N.: The Mind’s Best Work. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1981)Google Scholar
  17. Plotkin H.C.: Darwin Machines and the Nature of Knowledge. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1997)Google Scholar
  18. Poincaré H.: The Foundations of Science. Science Press, Lancaster (1913)Google Scholar
  19. Popper K.R.: Conjectures and Refutations. Routledge, New York (2002)Google Scholar
  20. Schumpeter J.A.: The Theory of Economic Development. Harvard University Press, Cambridge (1934)Google Scholar
  21. Simonton D.K.: Creativity, leadership, and chance. In: Sternberg, R.J. (ed.) The Nature of Creativity: Current Psychological Perspectives, pp. 386–426. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988)Google Scholar
  22. Simonton D.K.: Creativity as blind variation and selective retention: is the creative process Darwinian?. Psychol. Inq. 10(4), 309–328 (1999a)Google Scholar
  23. Simonton D.K.: Origins of Genius: Darwinian Perspectives on Creativity. Oxford University Press, New York (1999b)Google Scholar
  24. Sternberg R.J., Lubart T.I.: Defying the Crowd. Free Press, New York (1995)Google Scholar
  25. Van Manen M.: Researching Lived Experience: Human Science for an Action Sensitive Pedagogy. Althouse Press, London (1990)Google Scholar
  26. Weisberg R.W.: Creativity: Understanding Innovation in Problem Solving, Science, Invention, and the Arts. Wiley, Hoboken (2006)Google Scholar
  27. Wertheimer M.: Productive Thinking (enlarged edn). University of Chicago Press, Chicago (1982)Google Scholar

Copyright information

© Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2012

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Jeju Provincial CouncilJeju-CitySouth Korea

Personalised recommendations