Preface

More than ever, today's world needs creative and innovative ideas to deal with the increasingly demanding challenges it must face. Only new ideas and their practical implementation can address the world's contemporary constraints. In this emerging era, creativity and innovation are key pillars to drive growth, face challenges, and stand out in a competitive world. This is why it is so urgent to reflect on how creativity and innovation can be fostered in communities, especially among the younger generation who will be the protagonists of inevitable change in the future. The widespread recognition of the vital importance of both creativity and innovation in building a more balanced world between environmental, corporate, social, cultural, and personal demands becomes critical.

Despite this link between creativity and innovation, they are not one and the same. Creativity refers to the process of generating new and original ideas. Innovation, on the other hand, involves the fulfillment of creativity into something useful, relevant, and distinctive.

Creativity is an intrinsic ability of every human being. In a creative way, the human brain can conceive ideas and develop thoughts that can go beyond the standards. In other words, creativity exists within our minds and can be routed into action.

Innovation, on the other hand, is more linked to action. Innovation implies creating or proposing changes in systems that are seen as stable. Innovation means offering a new action, function, skill, or improvement to a system already known, making significant improvements to it. Innovation is about creating something new that meets a real need, positively impacting quality of life and human development.

Creativity comes before innovation. Creativity is the moment when references are gathered, and a product or service is idealized and even designed. However, if it is not put into practice, it is just a creative result.

Innovation happens when the idea is put into practice and generates value. In fact, that's why creativity is not measurable, but innovation is. Although creativity and innovation are in different arenas, they are forces that can coexist and, when they intertwine, yield improved outcomes.

This book focuses on the core and profitable link between creativity and innovation. It contains a set of reflections, experiences, and thoughts on how these two concepts become positive catalysts for each other. It also focuses on how to promote creativity and innovation in people, organizations, and communities.

This book is organized into three sections: "To Drive Creativity and Innovation Forward", "Creativity and Innovation: An Eternal Bond", and "Other Worlds for Creativity and Innovation".

Section 1, "To Drive Creativity and Innovation Forward", focuses on the importance of promoting and reinforcing the importance of developing creative skills. It includes three chapters.

Chapter 1 reflects on the importance that higher education has given to the teaching/ development of creativity skills among its graduates. It addresses how creativity is defined in the scope of learning outcomes of higher education. Results show that some scientific fields, such as engineering, information and media, humanities, life sciences, agriculture, forestry and fisheries, and arts and architecture tend to value more creativity as a desirable learning outcome. Conversely, law, education, social sciences, and business sciences are explicit examples of the undervaluation of competencies related to creativity as part of the professional profile of their graduates. Findings help to understand the real importance that higher education institutions attribute to creativity in their academic curricula.

Chapter 2 is based on the author's research on group creativity and educational initiatives in higher education courses at an advanced level. It highlights correlations between experiences of flow in idea-generating group activities and group members' integrative social behavior. In addition, the chapter shows that training for increased divergent thinking also develops broadened attention, openness, and flexibility for perspective shifts. The chapter presents a conceptual framework to construct a model of research design on collaborative creativity with the purpose of enabling comparisons between the study's methodology and findings to continue developing this field of research with joint efforts. The chapter advances the view that the impact of activities training group-based creativity should be raised in significance beyond individual brilliant ideas because creative collaboration develops abilities to take initiative, make decisions and interact constructively together.

Chapter 3 presents a new theory of creativity in mathematics education. The chapter explores the Koestler/Prabhu theory of learning through Aha! Moment and applies the bisociative frame to investigate its processes of interaction with several different theories of learning. Uncovered processes of interaction suggest that creativity should be the basis of contemporary learning and teaching.

Section 2, "Creativity and Innovation: An Eternal Bond", includes four chapters, all of which contribute to the idea of inseparability between creativity and innovation.

Chapter 4 looks at what tends to hinder creativity in organizations and how creativity informs entrepreneurship. Considering that innovation, entrepreneurship, and creativity are at the heart of entrepreneurship, the chapter focuses on the solutions to bond the creativity gap by refuting its possible barriers. It is a work that aims to mobilize policymakers, academics, and entrepreneurs to effectively use creativity to support innovation and entrepreneurship development.

Chapter 5 presents an integrated model of cognitive tasks involved in the process of technological innovation. The main topic of this model is the proposition that three cognitive conditions are necessary for technological imagination and innovation, namely, (1) cross-domain knowledge, (2) simple heuristics, and (3) pattern

**V**

imaginative ideas.

and design products.

post-crisis period.

enhancement. Chapter 8 presents the "Life2

microclimate and human health and comfort.

in a diverse range of contexts.

recognition ability. Although the required domain knowledge and implementation methods are different across domains, this chapter advocates that heuristics that lead to a breakthrough at each phase in technological innovation are similar, with the conceptual combination as the cognitive engine for generating original and

Chapter 6 discusses the importance of creativity and innovation in the pursuit of fashion among women entrepreneurs of the middle class. It examines the factors that led to the involvement of women entrepreneurs in the fashion industry, namely, religious responsibility, self-interest in entrepreneurship, family support, positive attitude towards success, and improving soft skills for survival. The findings indicate the importance of creativity and innovation in the production of Muslim fashion

Chapter 7 aims to establish the significant connections between innovation and creativity, innovation and the culture of quality management, and creativity and the culture of quality management globally as a response to the crisis and post-crisis period. For the authors, since issues related to innovation, creativity, quality, and quality management have recently attracted more attention than other topics globally, considering psychological factors was of great importance, too. The main finding of this study is that there are relationships between innovation and creativity, between innovation and application of ISO standards, and between quality management and creativity. Hence, quality management, which reflects and refers to the notion of exceeding customer expectations by enhancing the quality of goods and services, is correlated with culture, innovation, and creativity as a response to the crisis and

The final section of this book, "Other Worlds for Creativity and Innovation", showcases concrete approaches to the practical application of creativity and its

of AI, Physiology, EEG, Our Environment and Well-being." In this research project, creativity and innovation are implemented via identical units of a wearable device designed and worn by adolescents that contain environmental sensors that detect ambient temperature, air pressure, infrared radiation, and relative humidity. Results show that the most influential microclimatic factors on biometric indicators were noise and the concentrations of carbon dioxide and dust. Such findings suggest implications for the design of living conditions with respect to the interaction of

Finally, Chapter 9 highlights the contribution of design as a discipline to the reflection of creativity enhancement. It presents the Biology of Creativity Model (BoC), which is a design-by-analogy method that promotes an empowered design and creative practice through analysis of mostly biology reference texts for enhanced creative performance

From different cultures, different scientific fields, different research methodologies, the different contributions that make up this book shape an integrated approach to creativity and innovation as central concepts to contribute to a better society.

Well Project: Learning at the Intersection

recognition ability. Although the required domain knowledge and implementation methods are different across domains, this chapter advocates that heuristics that lead to a breakthrough at each phase in technological innovation are similar, with the conceptual combination as the cognitive engine for generating original and imaginative ideas.

Chapter 6 discusses the importance of creativity and innovation in the pursuit of fashion among women entrepreneurs of the middle class. It examines the factors that led to the involvement of women entrepreneurs in the fashion industry, namely, religious responsibility, self-interest in entrepreneurship, family support, positive attitude towards success, and improving soft skills for survival. The findings indicate the importance of creativity and innovation in the production of Muslim fashion and design products.

Chapter 7 aims to establish the significant connections between innovation and creativity, innovation and the culture of quality management, and creativity and the culture of quality management globally as a response to the crisis and post-crisis period. For the authors, since issues related to innovation, creativity, quality, and quality management have recently attracted more attention than other topics globally, considering psychological factors was of great importance, too. The main finding of this study is that there are relationships between innovation and creativity, between innovation and application of ISO standards, and between quality management and creativity. Hence, quality management, which reflects and refers to the notion of exceeding customer expectations by enhancing the quality of goods and services, is correlated with culture, innovation, and creativity as a response to the crisis and post-crisis period.

The final section of this book, "Other Worlds for Creativity and Innovation", showcases concrete approaches to the practical application of creativity and its enhancement. Chapter 8 presents the "Life2 Well Project: Learning at the Intersection of AI, Physiology, EEG, Our Environment and Well-being." In this research project, creativity and innovation are implemented via identical units of a wearable device designed and worn by adolescents that contain environmental sensors that detect ambient temperature, air pressure, infrared radiation, and relative humidity. Results show that the most influential microclimatic factors on biometric indicators were noise and the concentrations of carbon dioxide and dust. Such findings suggest implications for the design of living conditions with respect to the interaction of microclimate and human health and comfort.

Finally, Chapter 9 highlights the contribution of design as a discipline to the reflection of creativity enhancement. It presents the Biology of Creativity Model (BoC), which is a design-by-analogy method that promotes an empowered design and creative practice through analysis of mostly biology reference texts for enhanced creative performance in a diverse range of contexts.

From different cultures, different scientific fields, different research methodologies, the different contributions that make up this book shape an integrated approach to creativity and innovation as central concepts to contribute to a better society.

We believe that creativity and innovation are indeed the forces that drive progress, expression, and discovery. Investing in them is investing in a better, more balanced, and sustainable world.

> **Diana Dias** Lusofona University, Lisboa, Portugal
