Shaping Environment for Creativity and Innovation: A Multilevel Examination of Industry Conditions, Leadership, HRM Systems, Teams and Individuals in Established and Start-up Firms

研究人员从微观和宏观的角度研究了创造力和创新。微观视角侧重于考察个人特征（如个性、目标取向、价值观、思维方式、动机和影响）和团队特征（如团队结构和组成、团队氛围和过程）的影响。宏观视角侧重于考察市场结构等行业条件和企业规模、网络位置等企业特征对企业创新的影响。这种不连贯的方法导致了商业实践和研究结果的分歧甚至冲突，导致对这种现象的理解支离破碎。研究人员、政策制定者、企业主和管理者感兴趣的一些重要问题仍未得到解答。本项目整合了战略、心理学、人力资源管理、组织行为学等多学科的研究成果，构建了一个多层次的创造力与创新研究框架。具体而言，本研究使用了从两个研究站点收集的数据，考察了以下问题：首先，在行业内部和跨行业，公司的高层管理人员如何理解外部环境并做出有关创造力和创新的决策？第二，企业如何在组织内部培育创新的内部环境，以促进创造力和创新？第三，哪些因素塑造了对初创公司的创造力和创新至关重要的外部和内部环境？这项研究为创造力和创新领域提供了许多理论、方法和实践方面的贡献。从理论上讲，多层次方法有助于弥合“微观-宏观”的鸿沟，并提供了一幅协调一致的画面，说明来自不同分析层次的因素如何共同塑造支持创造力和创新的外部和内部环境，并描绘了这些过程的边界条件。在方法上，通过三个阶段的数据收集（访谈/观察、调查和实地实验），从两个重要的研究地点获得定性和定量数据，研究设计提供的结果不仅具有强大的外部和内部有效性，而且有助于发现新的理论。在实践上，本研究弥合了“研究与实践”的鸿沟，加强了“循证管理”，帮助政府决策者和组织管理者更好地设计和实施有利于创造和创新的政策和实践。

Researchers have examined creativity and innovation from either a micro or macro perspective. The micro perspective focuses on examining the effects of individual characteristics such as personality, goal orientation, values, thinking styles, motivation and affects, and team characteristics such as team structure and composition, team climate and process. The macro perspective focuses on examining the effects of industry conditions such as market structure and firms' characteristics such as size and network position on firm innovation. This disconnected approach has resulted in divergent or even conflicting business practices and research findings, leading to fragmented understandings of the phenomena. Some important questions that are of interest to researchers, policy makers, and business owners and managers remain unanswered. The current research project integrates literatures from multiple disciplines including strategy, psychology, human resource management (HRM) and organizational behavior, and develops a multilevel framework of creativity and innovation. Specifically, this research, using data collected from two research sites, examines the following questions: First, within and across industries, how do top managers of a firm make sense of the external environment and make decisions on creativity and innovation? Second, how can firms cultivate an innovative internal environment within the organization to facilitate creativity and innovation? Third, what factors shape the external and internal environments critical for creativity and innovation in start-up firms? This research offers a number of theoretical, methodological, and practical contributions to the field of creativity and innovation. Theoretically, the multilevel approach helps bridge the "micro-macro" divide and provides a concerted picture of how factors from different levels of analysis may jointly shape the external and internal environments supportive for creativity and innovation, and delineate the boundary conditions for such processes. Methodologically, using both qualitative and quantitative data from two important research sites obtained through three phases of data collection (interviews/ observations, surveys, and field experiments), the research design provides findings that are not only of strong external and internal validity, but also contribute to the discovery of new theories. Practically, this research bridges the "research-practice" divide, enhances "evidence-based management", and helps government policy makers and organizational management better design and implement policies and practices that are conducive to creativity and innovation.