The Process of Bisociation, at the Heart of the Ideas Factory. The Case of a Managerial Innovation

Le processus de bissociation au cœur de la fabrique des idées: le cas d’une innovation managériale

Jacques Chabrillat, Marc Lecoutre () and Pascal Lièvre
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Jacques Chabrillat: CleRMa - Clermont Recherche Management - ESC Clermont-Ferrand - École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) - Clermont-Ferrand - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne
Marc Lecoutre: CleRMa - Clermont Recherche Management - ESC Clermont-Ferrand - École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) - Clermont-Ferrand - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne, ESC Clermont-Ferrand - École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) - Clermont-Ferrand
Pascal Lièvre: CleRMa - Clermont Recherche Management - ESC Clermont-Ferrand - École Supérieure de Commerce (ESC) - Clermont-Ferrand - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne, IAE - UCA - Institut d'Administration des Entreprises - Clermont-Auvergne - UCA - Université Clermont Auvergne

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Abstract: The literature establishing the link between creativity and innovation today focuses on idea generation (Cohendet et al., 2017) and encounters Koestler's (1964) work about bisociation. This concept has received limited attention in management literature. We open the black box of this mechanism by studying the case of a managerial innovation in a cultural company. We conduct an ethnographic investigation within a grounded theory framework. This approach reveals the processual nature of bisociation. We meticulously document the process, describing and naming its different stages and the conditions of its emergence and realization. This leads to considering bisociation as a universal process of idea generation, characterized by a profound destabilization of the actor as a triggering event, a seemingly insoluble problem within his usual reference system, and the emergence of a solution at the intersection of practices related to its past experiences.

Keywords: Bisociation; Process; Creativity; Idea Generation; Innovation; Bissociation; Processus; Créativité; Génération d'idées (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024-01-22
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-04345133v1
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Published in Innovations - Revue d’économie et de management de l'innovation, 2024, 73 (1), pp.185-214. ⟨10.3917/inno.pr2.0156⟩

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-04345133

DOI: 10.3917/inno.pr2.0156

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