Groundbreaking
Fertile Green: Green Facilitates Creative Performance
Stephanie Lichtenfeld et al.
Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
The present research sought to extend the nascent literature on color and psychological functioning by examining whether perception of the color green facilitates creativity. In four experiments, we demonstrated that a brief glimpse of green prior to a creativity task enhances creative performance. This green effect was observed using both achromatic (white, gray) and chromatic (red, blue) contrast colors that were carefully matched on nonhue properties, and using both picture-based and word-based assessments of creativity. Participants were not aware of the purpose of the experiment, and null effects were obtained on participants' self-reported mood and positive activation. These findings indicate that green has implications beyond aesthetics and suggest the need for sustained empirical work on the functional meaning of green.
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The social and scientific temporal correlates of genotypic intelligence and the Flynn effect
Michael Woodley
Intelligence, March-April 2012, Pages 189-204
Abstract:
In this study the pattern of temporal variation in innovation rates is examined in the context of Western IQ measures in which historical genotypic gains and losses along with the Flynn effect are considered. It is found that two alternative genotypic IQ estimates based on an increase in IQ from 1455 to 1850 followed by a decrease from 1850 to the present, best fitted the historical growth and decline of innovation rates (r = .876 and .866, N = 56 decades). These genotypic IQ estimates were found to be the strongest predictors of innovation rates in regression in which a common factor of GDP (PPP) per capita and Flynn effect gains along with a common factor of illiteracy and homicide rates were also included (β = .706 and .787, N = 51 decades). The strongest temporal correlate of the Flynn effect was GDP (PPP) per capita (r = .930, N = 51 decades). A common factor of these was used as the dependent variable in regression, in which the common factor of illiteracy/homicide rates was the strongest predictor (β = - 1.251 and - 1.389, N = 51 decades). The genotypic IQ estimates were significant negative predictors of the Flynn effect (β = -.894 and -.978, N = 51 decades). These relationships were robust to path analysis. This finding indicates that the Flynn effect, whilst associated with developmental indicators and wealth, only minimally influences innovation rates, which appear instead to be most strongly promoted or inhibited by changes in genotypic intelligence.
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Engines of Growth: Farm Tractors and Twentieth-Century U.S. Economic Welfare
Richard Steckel & William White
NBER Working Paper, March 2012
Abstract:
The role of twentieth-century agricultural mechanization in changing the productivity, employment opportunities, and appearance of rural America has long been appreciated. Less attention has been paid to the impact made by farm tractors, combines, and associated equipment on the standard of living of the U.S. population as a whole. This paper demonstrates, through use of a detailed counterfactual analysis, that mechanization in the production of farm products increased GDP by more than 8.0 percent, using 1954 as a base year. This result suggests that studying individual innovations can significantly increase our understanding of the nature of economic growth.
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Digital Copying and the Supply of Sound Recordings
Christian Handke
Information Economics and Policy, March 2012, Pages 15-29
Abstract:
One concern with digitization in markets for information goods is that unauthorized, digital copying will reduce the number and quality of original works supplied. Despite a substantial literature on the effects of piracy on demand for recorded music, information on the supply-effects of digital copying is limited. This paper presents empirical evidence that digital copying has not reduced the supply of new, copyrighted sound recordings in Germany. Even with a strong reduction in sales of sound recordings that accompanied the diffusion of digital copying technology, the annual number of new titles released to the market continued to expand. Results indicate that the number of new titles released has not deviated significantly from a long-term upward trend. The paper also presents evidence that the amount of time listening to sound recordings has not fallen over this period, suggesting no strong decline in the quality of new work.
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Carmit Tadmor et al.
Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology, April 2012, Pages 384-392
Abstract:
Although recent research has consistently demonstrated the benefits of multicultural experience for individual-level creativity, its potential advantages for collective creativity in culturally diverse teams have yet to be explored. We predicted that multicultural experience among members of a collective would enhance joint creativity in a superadditive fashion. Using a two-step methodology that included both individual and dyadic brainstorming sessions, we found that even after controlling for individual creativity, multicultural experience had a superadditive effect on dyadic creativity. Specifically, dyads performed best on a creative task in terms of fluency, flexibility, and novelty - three classic dimensions of creativity - when both dyad partners had high levels of multicultural experience. These results show that when it comes to multicultural experience, the creative whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Implications for diversity research are discussed.
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Lock-in and unobserved preferences in server operating systems: A case of Linux vs. Windows
Seung-Hyun Hong & Leonardo Rezende
Journal of Econometrics, April 2012, Pages 494-503
Abstract:
This paper investigates to what extent the persistence of Microsoft Windows in the market for server operating systems is due to lock-in or unobserved preferences. While the hypothesis of lock-in plays an important role in the antitrust policy debate for the operating systems market, it has not been extensively documented empirically. To account for unobserved preferences, we use a panel data identification approach based on time-variant group fixed effects, and estimate the dynamic discrete choice panel data model developed by Arellano and Carrasco (2003). Using detailed establishment-level data, we find that once we account for unobserved preferences, the estimated magnitudes of lock-in are considerably smaller than those from the conventional approaches, suggesting that unobserved preferences play a major role in the persistence of Windows. Further robustness checks are consistent with our findings.
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Does AMD Spur Intel to Innovate More?
Ronald Goettler & Brett Gordon
Journal of Political Economy, December 2011, Pages 1141-1200
Abstract:
We estimate an equilibrium model of dynamic oligopoly with durable goods and endogenous innovation to examine the effect of competition on innovation in the personal computer microprocessor industry. Firms make dynamic pricing and investment decisions while consumers make dynamic upgrade decisions, anticipating product improvements and price declines. Consistent with Schumpeter, we find that the rate of innovation in product quality would be 4.2 percent higher without AMD present, though higher prices would reduce consumer surplus by $12 billion per year. Comparative statics illustrate the role of product durability and provide implications of the model for other industries.
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Mark Hirschey, Hilla Skiba & Babajide Wintoki
Journal of Corporate Finance, June 2012, Pages 496-518
Abstract:
The use of research and development (R&D) spending as an empirical proxy for managerial discretion, information asymmetry and growth opportunities, is pervasive in empirical corporate finance research. Underlying this is the implicit assumption that firms choose levels of R&D to maximize value, given firm and industry characteristics. An alternative framework views the level of R&D spending as subject to idiosyncratic behavior as managers myopically manipulate R&D expenditures to meet short-term earnings goals. Using aggregate firm and industry level data, we find evidence consistent with the view that R&D is determined by firm and industry characteristics. Time invariant firm and industry fixed effects explain most of the cross-sectional variation in observed R&D spending, while time-varying factors like size, profitability, or market-to-book explain little of the cross-sectional variation. We find that R&D spending continues to grow faster than advertising and capital expenditures. We also find no evidence of managerial myopia as corporate aggregate R&D expenditures are growing faster than aggregate profitability and the number of firms that undertake R&D has increased over the period from 1976-2010.
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Walter Park & Ralph Sonenshine
Journal of Industry, Competition and Trade, March 2012, Pages 143-167
Abstract:
This paper contributes further empirical evidence on the effects of mergers on innovation using company level data. Evidence on this issue has implications for the relationship between innovation and market concentration. Our departure from previous work is that we focus on a sample of horizontal mergers whose market concentration impacts were flagged by U.S. antitrust authorities as potentially posing a problem for antitrust law compliance. We employ propensity score matching and difference-in-differences estimation to compare the innovation activities of challenged and non-challenged merger firms to a control group of non-merged firms. We use R&D, patent grants, and citation-weighted patent grants to measure the innovation activities of firms before and after a merger. Our results indicate that the post-merger innovation outcomes of firms whose mergers were challenged are lower than they would have been had the firms not merged. But for non-challenged mergers, or mergers that do not raise concerns about market concentration, post-merger innovation outcomes are not significantly different from what they would have been without a merger.
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Are Central Cities More Creative? The Intrametropolitan Geography of Creative Industries
Ric Kolenda & Cathy Yang Liu
Journal of Urban Affairs, forthcoming
Abstract:
This paper examines the location and growth of creative industries within metropolitan areas. In recent years, the creative industries have been increasingly sought after as potential engines of metropolitan economic growth. Although some research has been done on the location decisions by such firms and workers, it has primarily focused on interregional and intermetropolitan disparities. We use establishment-level data to investigate intrametropolitan (central city versus suburban) location and growth for creative industry establishments in 40 of the top 101 metropolitan statistical areas (MSAs). We compared the number of employees and total annual payroll in each location, and categorize them by region, population size, and creative employment growth. Findings suggest that although creative industries are more centralized, they are decentralizing faster than other industries in general, but this rate, and even the direction, varies widely across MSAs.
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Supply responses to digital distribution: Recorded music and live performances
Julie Holland Mortimer, Chris Nosko & Alan Sorensen
Information Economics and Policy, March 2012, Pages 3-14
Abstract:
Technologies that enable free redistribution of digital goods (e.g., music, movies, software, books) can undermine sellers' ability to profitably sell such goods, which raises concerns about the future development of socially valuable digital products. In this paper we explore the possibility that broad, illegitimate distribution of a digital good might have offsetting effects on the demand for complementary non-digital goods. We examine the impact of file-sharing on sales of recorded music and on the demand for live concert performances. We provide evidence suggesting that while file-sharing reduced album sales, it simultaneously increased demand for concerts. This effect is most pronounced for small artists, perhaps because file-sharing boosts awareness of such artists. The impact of file-sharing on large, well-known artists' live performances is negligible.
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Marleen Gillebaart, Jens Förster & Mark Rotteveel
Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, forthcoming
Abstract:
Combining regulatory focus theory (Higgins, 1997) and novelty categorization theory (Förster, Marguc, & Gillebaart, 2010), we predicted that novel stimuli would be more positively evaluated when focused on growth as compared with security and that familiar stimuli would be more negatively evaluated when focused on growth as compared with security. This would occur, at least in part, because of changes in category breadth. We tested effects of several variables linked to growth and security on evaluations of novel and familiar stimuli. Using a subliminal mere exposure paradigm, results showed novel stimuli were evaluated more positively in a promotion focus compared to a prevention focus (Experiments 1A-1C), with high power compared to low power (Experiment 2A), and with the color blue compared to red (Experiment 2B). For familiar stimuli, all effects were reversed. Additionally, as predicted by novelty categorization theory, novel stimuli were liked better after broad compared to narrow category priming, and familiar stimuli were liked better after narrow compared with broad category priming (Experiment 3). We suggest, therefore, that although familiarity glows warmly in security-related contexts, people prefer novelty when they are primarily focused on growth.
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Watching Films with Magical Content Facilitates Creativity in Children
Eugene Subbotsky, Claire Hysted & Nicola Jones
Perceptual and Motor Skills, August 2010, Pages 261-277
Abstract:
Two experiments examined the possible link between magical thinking and creativity in preschool children. In Exp. 1, 4- and 6-yr.-old children were shown a film with either a magical or nonmagical theme. Results indicated that the mean scores of children shown the magical film was significantly higher than that of children watching the nonmagical film on the majority of subsequent creativity tests for both age groups. This trend was also found for 6-yr.-olds' drawings of impossible items. In Exp. 2, Exp. 1 was replicated successfully with 6- and 8-yr.-old children. Exposing children to a film with a magical theme did not affect their beliefs about magic. The results were interpreted to accentuate the role of magical thinking in children's cognitive development. Classroom implications of the results were also discussed.
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Myriam Bechtoldt, Hoon-Seok Choi & Bernard Nijstad
Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, forthcoming
Abstract:
It has been argued that groups with individualistic norms are more creative than groups with collectivistic norms (Goncalo & Staw, 2006). This conclusion, however, may be too unspecific, as individualism-collectivism denotes a multidimensional continuum and may affect people's self-construal and values. This study analyzed to what extent these dimensions differentially impact upon group creativity. After manipulating self-construal and value orientation, 58 triads engaged in a brainstorming task. Groups with collectivistic value orientation generated more ideas than groups with individualistic value orientation. Furthermore, there was an interaction between value orientation and self-construal on originality: Ideas were more original when group members combined collectivistic value orientation with individualistic self-construal. Thus, groups should integrate elements of both individualism and collectivism to ensure high creativity.
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Rewards and Creative Performance: A Meta-Analytic Test of Theoretically Derived Hypotheses
Kris Byron & Shalini Khazanchi
Psychological Bulletin, forthcoming
Abstract:
Although many scholars and practitioners are interested in understanding how to motivate individuals to be more creative, whether and how rewards affect creativity remain unclear. We argue that the conflicting evidence may be due to differences between studies in terms of reward conditions and the context in which rewards are offered. Specifically, we examine 5 potential moderators of the rewards-creative performance relationship: (a) the reward contingency, (b) the extent to which participants are provided information about their past or current creative performance, (c) the extent to which the reward and context offer choice or impose control, (d) the extent to which the context serves to enhance task engagement, and (e) the extent to which the performance tasks are complex. Using random-effects models, we meta-analyzed 60 experimental and nonexperimental studies (including 69 independent samples) that examined the rewards-creativity relationship with children or adults. Our results suggest that creativity-contingent rewards tend to increase creative performance - and are more positively related to creative performance when individuals are given more positive, contingent, and task-focused performance feedback and are provided more choice (and are less controlled). In contrast, performance-contingent or completion-contingent rewards tend to have a slight negative effect on creative performance.
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Shyama Ramani, Shuan SadreGhazi & Geert Duysters
Technological Forecasting and Social Change, May 2012, Pages 676-687
Abstract:
There is an emerging body of literature on product innovations for the poor at the bottom of the income pyramid. However, there is little on why delivery systems succeed or fail in this context and the present paper attempts to fill this void by examining why and how sanitation entrepreneurs are succeeding in India to diffuse toilets - an innovation for rural households, which never had access to one before. The literature is analyzed and confronted with the actual field practices. We demonstrate that the common thread that unifies progressive sanitation entrepreneurs is their adoption of a ‘market based approach'. There are market failures stemming from the demand side due to problems in expression of demand and its mismatch with the perceived value of the innovation. In response, sanitation entrepreneurs go beyond the standard linear model of assessing need and appropriateness of technology. They create innovations in ‘technological design' as well as in the ‘delivery platforms' to include practices for ‘accompaniment', ‘sustainable maintenance' and ‘generation of knowledge'. Thus, they make-up for sluggish or missing markets and informational asymmetries to ensure sustained use of toilets.
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Free licensing to boost aggregate odds for success
Gilad Sorek
Economics Letters, forthcoming
Abstract:
We show how technological leader gains from inviting entrant into R&D competition to improve over existing patented technology, as the entrant takes complementary R&D effort and demand for both current and improved technologies is increasing with aggregate probability for successful quality improvement.
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Eitan Wilf
American Anthropologist, March 2012, Pages 32-44
Abstract:
In this article, I seek to complicate the distinction between imitation and creativity, which has played a dominant role in the modern imaginary and anthropological theory. I focus on a U.S. collegiate jazz music program, in which jazz educators use advanced sound technologies to reestablish immersive interaction with the sounds of past jazz masters against the backdrop of the disappearance of performance venues for jazz. I analyze a key pedagogical practice in the course of which students produce precise replications of the recorded improvisations of past jazz masters and then play them in synchrony with the recordings. Through such synchronous iconization, students inhabit and reenact the creativity epitomized by these recordings. I argue that such a practice, which I call a "ritual of creativity," suggests a coconstitutive relationship between imitation and creativity, which has intensified under modernity because of the availability of new technologies of digital reproduction.
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Artistic Prosumption: Cocreative Destruction at Burning Man
Katherine Chen
American Behavioral Scientist, April 2012, Pages 570-595
Abstract:
Researchers have called for more studies of how organizations institutionalize the unfamiliar as taken for granted. This study answers this call by examining how an organization has advocated an unfamiliar activity, the prosumption of art. To show how particular means and ends become taken for granted, this research analyzes how the Burning Man organization has promoted a logic advocating the prosumption of art. Using an in-depth ethnographic study of the organization behind Burning Man, a weeklong gathering of 50,000 persons around a ceremonial bonfire of a 40-foot-tall sculpture in the Nevada Black Rock Desert, the author shows how the Burning Man organization codified and advocated what she identifies as an inclusive community logic, a set of beliefs and practices that promote artistic prosumption. Members sought to expand who may produce art by recasting producers and consumers as prosumers, what kind of art is produced by encouraging interactions via prosumption, and how art is consumed by imbuing prosumption with specific meaning via connection. However, conflicts about whether particular actions support or undercut the inclusive community logic have not only challenged the Burning Man organization's authority to shape prosumption but also forced organizers to clarify the ambiguous contours between appropriate and inappropriate activities. This research makes three contributions: (a) It reveals how an organization can facilitate new conceptions of activities by promulgating a logic that highlights contrasts between not-yet-familiar and conventional means; (b) it delves into how an organization adjudicates among competing conceptions of appropriate activities, illuminating the promotion of presumption specifically and the emergence of a logic generally; and (c) it synthesizes three separate literatures on the sociology of organizations, prosumption, and art.