Desirée Hermina van Dun

This editorial introduces and reflects on the contributions to the Creativity and Innovation Management Special Issue “Bridging Innovation and Sustainability Management Research: Theoretical and Managerial Challenges and Opportunities.” Drawing on studies spanning different levels of analysis, we identify three complementary dimensions through which the two fields can be integrated: individual action, organizational transition through capability development, and systemic change through ecosystem coordination and institutionalization. Although capability‐based explanations at the organizational level currently provide the most developed point of convergence between innovation and sustainability management research, individual microfoundations, ecosystem dynamics, and the mechanisms connecting levels remain less understood. On this basis, we outline an integrative future research agenda centered on the processes and cross‐level mechanisms connecting individual action, organizational transition, and systemic change. We also discuss the implications for managers and policymakers on how to organize for integrated innovation and sustainability. Together, the papers in the Special Issue conceptualize the integration of innovation and sustainability objectives as an ongoing multilevel transformation process that drives a promising future research agenda as outlined in this editorial.

Novelty is widely regarded as the foundation of scholarly contributions, yet its definition and pathways to achieve novelty remain too open for interpretation, especially for young scholars. This article reviews existing debates on novelty and advances a definition and framework that connects different knowledge production modes to three distinct pathways for generating novel research in management studies with a particular focus on the field of Creativity and Innovation Management. We argue that establishing novelty in a scientific domain requires a more nuanced argument than “what is observed and what is missing.” This article unfolds two questions: what is novelty in scientific research and what are the pathways to identifying and arguing for novelty. The article uses these to develop a novelty canvas for authors and an evaluative tool for reviewers and editors. These two tools are complemented with key questions, which authors and reviewers can use for reflecting on, articulating, and evaluating the novelty of research. By providing guidance for authors in the form of the novelty canvas, and for reviewers and editors in the form of an evaluation framework for novelty, this article gives practical guidance that may sharpen an understanding and more detailed view of novelty to ultimately advance the knowledge production within business studies and specifically creativity and innovation management research. Novelty, however, cannot be pursued in isolation, but must be balanced with rigor, relevance, and impact.

This final chapter consists of guidelines on how to implement transdisciplinary research (TDR) based on the literature and experiences included in Parts I and II of this book. Building on the process framework for TDR presented in the previous chapter, we provide prompts for implementing TDR organised around the seven elements of that process: purpose and context, flexible design, collaboration and intervention, data gathering and generation, analysis and framing the produced knowledge, reflexivity, and presentation and publication. The prompts help to guide researchers in designing and implementing TDR. We draw out implications and conclusions for the education of researchers and other learners, as well as for funders and academic structures. The final reflection provides insight into the transdisciplinary learning journey that was the process of writing this book.

Purpose: Using absorptive capacity theory, we explore the factors affecting the adoption of Industry 4.0 technology in daily operations and examine how leadership enhances absorptive capacity through social integration mechanisms (SIMs). Design/methodology/approach: To follow the implementation of a connected worker programme (a type of Industry 4.0 technology) between 2023 and 2025, a single embedded case design was used within four factories of a large multinational firm. The reflective R-TEAM approach included meetings with senior management, key informant interviews, qualitative surveys and group interviews. Findings: The factories showed a shift in absorptive capacity capabilities. Initially, top managers used transformational leadership to learn about and initiate the connected worker programme. As organisational transformation and programme exploitation proved difficult, middle managers and frontline leaders adopted instrumental leadership behaviours. These leaders created three SIMs: learning from app usage, co-development and feedback and training. This improved the factories' ability to adopt the programme, with headquarters aspiring to build a comprehensive ecosystem for data-driven decision making at all levels. Originality/value: Our study expands absorptive capacity theory by exploring how SIMs affect realised absorptive capacity and its drivers. It also incorporates transformational and instrumental leadership at various levels to explain improvements in SIMs and organisation's absorptive capacity. We draw a conceptual model for Industry 4.0 technology adoption to guide future research.

Purpose: Despite the importance of dynamic capabilities (DCs) within organizations, our knowledge of how such capabilities emerge is still relatively limited. This paper aims to advance the microfoundations of DCs theory by exploring how deploying Lean practices can gradually develop into organizational routines and then, together, form a continuous improvement (CI) dynamic capability (DC). Design/methodology/approach: We conducted a four-year retrospective process study in which we compared two Dutch university-based hospitals that had both started implementing Lean. Abductive cross-case analysis was undertaken based on the transcripts of 48 interviews, 13 frontline meeting observations, hospital documents and archival key performance data. Findings: We identified how a staged process engaged top and cross-functional hospital leaders (including middle managers and frontline leaders) in capability development. This process gradually developed routines, which established four interconnected capabilities that, together, formed a hospital-wide CI DC: (1) a coherent improvement system, (2) hospital-wide collaborative synergy, (3) integrated accountability, linking strategy with daily operations, and (4) learning-to-learn among employees and teams. Originality/value: A conceptual framework for developing strategic DCs is proposed. It enriches the microfoundations of DCs theory by explaining how evolving organizational routines may fuse, fostered by leaders across all hierarchical levels, which then can form a CI DC within the organization. The findings offer valuable insights for managers of large, knowledge-intensive organizations seeking to implement organization-wide improvement.

As has become apparent in recent years, our society is changing rapidly due to the rise of advanced technologies. Where once social media was perceived as shaking up the domain of marketing, widespread digitalization, hyper-customization, and transformational innovations such as generative artificial intelligence are currently reshaping, not just marketing but also entire industries and societies across the world. Organizations have become curious to explore the new vistas opened up by the (concurrent) adoption of these advanced technologies, with major impacts on how we live and work. This chapter examines the unfolding of a new industrial revolution, identified by the European Commission as ‘Industry 5.0’, and how this has the potential to completely transform marketing as we currently know it. After offering an initial overview of what this fifth industrial revolution constitutes, this chapter explores marketing’s technological evolution, the role of sustainability in, and humanistic approaches to, marketing. In the final sections, we reflect on the implications these developments have on the role of the marketer and sketch out a research agenda to explore future novel pathways advancing research in marketing.

Leaders play a key role in Continuous Improvement (CI) implementations. However, the research on CI-enabling versus CI-inhibiting leadership behaviors remains fragmented. Our research reviews, empirically validates, and extends the understanding on CI leadership behaviors by examining low vs. high maturity and capability building vs. value maximization CI implementations. After providing a literature review focused on leadership behaviors that affect CI implementation processes, we did expert-interviews to see whether informants recognized these behaviors. Then, we did a survey among 144 key informants to empirically validate the relative importance of CI leadership behaviors and the moderating effect of CI implementation archetype and maturity level. Robustness analyses comprised instrument variable-based endogeneity treatment and secondary data-based common method bias assessment. No overall direct relationship was found between “command-and-control” behaviors and CI implementation success, although these behaviors did have positive effects depending on the type of CI implementation. Also, “inspirational role modelling, coaching, and empowering” behaviors relate positively to implementation success, especially in low-maturity CI implementations, regardless of their archetype. Unexpectedly, “serving” behaviors were found to negatively relate to implementation success, and were mostly relevant for low maturity and economically driven CI implementation archetypes. The results provide a prioritization of significant CI leadership behaviors and a novel measurement tool. We show how these leadership behaviors are contextually contingent upon different CI implementation situations. This mixed-methods study answers to calls for more systematic scientific attention to the social components of CI implementation.