Risking creativity in innovation

Abstract

Growing uncertainties, rapid technological advancements, globalisation and increased levels of competition are forcing organisations to find creative ways of addressing business strategies to survive. The rising importance of leveraging data for decision-making directs this study towards knowledge management processes which are fundamental to innovation initiatives and building dynamic capabilities. Innovation is a significant enabler to building competitive advantage and has been widely accepted and recommended as a strategic imperative in this era of change. A principle characteristic of innovation, and significant enabler of knowledge management, is creativity. Creativity however introduces risk resulting in risk management practices to dilute its effect. While, the challenge remains for organisations to successfully manage and execute innovation, this research aimed to understand if innovation outputs can be enhanced through the advancement of creativity in knowledge management processes. A quantitative study was used to measure the relationship between knowledge management, innovation and creativity using multivariate data analysis. Results, herein, reported statistically significant positive correlations between knowledge management and innovation whilst demonstrating a positive moderating impact of creativity. Contrastingly, risk management reported negative moderation thus highlighting the research problem and introducing a new perspective for building dynamic capabilities and enhancing competitive advantage.