Creativity in cross-domain collaborations: searching factors to increase efficiency

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to examine how different disciplines and sectors approach creativity, and how to improve cross-domain collaboration efficiency. Creativity is one of the most important factors that hugely contributes to the growth of economy, and the key to the modern organisation’s survival. There are considerable differences between disciplines regarding how they approach creativity since each discipline has a methodology which is designed to develop new ideas. Specialisation of disciplines can create difficulties when they start to interact in collaborations. Differences between sectors (Industry, Academia, Arts and Public) in definition of creativity, creativity measurement, management and collaboration motivators can hinder cross-sector collaboration efficiency. Design/methodology/approach – A questionnaire was distributed over the Internet, and statistical tests were performed to find differences between groups how they view various dimensions of creativity. Findings – By analysing various disciplines, the study revealed significant differences between the reward system, the creativity measurement, the required management support and the way how various disciplines solve complex problems. Sector analysis revealed significant differences in creativity quantification, personal traits, sensitivity to idea ownership, composition and size of the ideal team, communication and incentives to increase creativity. Research limitations/implications – In this study, only Internet users were sampled, and the majority of respondent were from Europe working in academic environment. Practical implications – Misalignment of forces between disciplines causes inefficient cross- and multi-disciplinary collaborations, while inter-sector misalignment results in unproductive inter-disciplinary and trans-disciplinary teamwork. Special emphasis has to be placed on external factor, creativity measurement and collaboration motivator adjustment that were the most misaligned across the analysed groups. Originality/value – The study indicates that to increase collaboration, efficiency factors that were scrutinised in this project have to be aligned across disciplines and sectors.