Where There’s a Will,There’s a Way: Synthesizing Creativity,Contagious Motivation,and Unique Projects Into the Course Experience

Abstract

Creativity is not just a catch phrase for the new decade—it is a way of life. While technology-driven innovation can promote efforts to produce optimal solutions, individually driven creativity is necessary to launch and drive cutting-edge, trailblazing ideas. The goal of this study is to examine relationships between creative divergent thinking (CDT) and motivation situated within course projects as antecedents to the overall course experience. The synthesis of transformational leadership, context-dependent fixation hypothesis, strength of weak ties perspective, contagious motivation, and constructivist learning frameworks form the interdisciplinary foundation for the proposed contagious motivation and creative experience model (CMCEM). The proposed marketing classroom model is tested using a structural equation model of N = 540 marketing undergraduate students. Findings indicate that CDT is an important individual characteristic that affects classroom dynamics. Importantly, when students exhibit higher levels of CDT, they perceive higher project uniqueness, higher levels of motivation, higher other student motivation, and more positive course experiences. In addition to other findings, the CMCEM emphasizes the powerful combination of CDT, individual student motivation, the contagious nature of that motivation on other students through well-structured group projects, and the importance of instructors as transformational teachers.

Keywords

creativity contagious motivation project uniqueness structural equation modeling groups teams course satisfaction course experience social learning theory context-dependent fixation hypothesis

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Amabile

T. M.

(1982). Social psychology of creativity: A consensual assessment technique. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 43(5), 997-1013. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.43.5.997

Amabile

T. M.

(2012). Componential theory of creativity. Harvard Business School. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/6188/5f52d813d518b4ed5b833b4022990211f063.pdf

Amabile

T. M.

Pratt

M. G.

(2016). The dynamic componential model of creativity and innovation in organizations: Making progress, making meaning. Research in Organizational Behavior, 36, 157-183. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.riob.2016.10.001

Youn

(2018). The inspirational power of arts on creativity. Journal of Business Research, 85(April), 467-475. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2017.10.025

Anderson

S. E.

Williams

L. J.

(1996). Interpersonal, job, and individual factors related to helping processes at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 81(3), 282-296. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.81.3.282

Andressen

Konradt

Neck

C. P.

(2012). The relation between self-leadership and transformational leadership: Competing models and the moderating role of virtuality. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 19(1), 68-82. https://doi.org/10.1177/1548051811425047

Appleton-Knapp

S. L.

Krentler

K. A.

(2006). Measuring student expectations and their effects on satisfaction: The importance of managing student expectations. Journal of Marketing Education, 28(3), 254-264. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475306293359

Avolio

B. J.

Bass

B. M.

Jung

D. I.

(1999). Re-examining the components of transformational and transactional leadership using the multifactor leadership. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 72(4), 441-462. https://doi.org/10.1348/096317999166789

Bacon

D. R.

Stewart

K. A.

Anderson

E. S.

(2001). Methods of assigning players to teams: A review and novel approach. Simulation & Gaming, 32(1), 6-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/104687810103200102

10.

Baer

(2010). The strength-of-weak-ties perspective on creativity: A comprehensive examination and extension. Journal of Applied Psychology, 95(3), 592-601. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0018761

11.

Bagozzi

R. P.

(2012). Specification, evaluation, and interpretation of structural equation models. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 40(1), 8-34. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-011-0278-x

12.

Bai

Lin

P. P.

(2016). How to enable employee creativity in a team context: A cross-level mediating process of transformational leadership. Journal of Business Research, 69(9), 3240-3250. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.025

13.

Bandura

Walters

R. H.

(1977). Social learning theory (Vol. 1). Prentice Hall.

14.

Baumgartner

Steenkamp

J.-B. E.

(2001). Response styles in marketing research: A cross-national investigation. Journal of Marketing Research, 38(2), 143-156. https://doi.org/10.1509/jmkr.38.2.143.18840

15.

Beda

Smith

S. M.

(2018). Chasing red herrings: Memory of distractors causes fixation in creative problem solving. Memory & Cognition, 46(5), 671-684.

16.

Belsky

(2020). Creativity will be key to competing against AI in the future workforce: Here’s how. https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/11/ai-automation-creativity-workforce-skill-fute-of-work

17.

Berg

J. M.

(2016). Balancing on the creative highwire: Forecasting the success of novel ideas in organizations. Administrative Science Quarterly, 61(3), 433-468. https://doi.org/10.1177/0001839216642211

18.

Bruner

J. S.

(1961). The act of discovery. Harvard Educational Review, 31, 21-32.

19.

Burgess

(2012). Pop-up retailing: The design, implementation, and five-year evolution of an experiential learning project. Journal of Marketing Education, 34(3), 284-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475312460763

20.

Carpenter

(2016). Engineering creativity: Toward an understanding of the relationship between perceptions of creativity in engineering design and creative performance. International Journal of Engineering Education, 32(5), 2016-2024.

21.

Chang

S.-H. H.

Smith

R. A.

(2008). Effectiveness of personal interaction in a learner-centered paradigm distance education class based on student satisfaction. Journal of Research on Technology in Education, 40(4), 407-426. https://doi.org/10.1080/15391523.2008.10782514

22.

Chapman

K. J.

van Auken

(2001). Creating positive group project experiences: An examination of the role of the instructor on students’ perceptions of group projects. Journal of Marketing Education, 23(2), 117-127. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475301232005

23.

Chen

Benedicktus

Kim

Shih

(2018). Teaching design thinking in marketing: Linking product design and marketing strategy in a product development class. Journal of Marketing Education, 40(3), 176-187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475317753678

24.

Craciun

Corrigan

H. B.

(2010). An integrative experiential learning project in the undergraduate branding course: Creating a marketing department brochure. Journal of Marketing Education, 32(2), 116-127. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475309344808

25.

Craighead

C. W.

Ketchen

D. J.

Dunn

K. S.

Hult

G. T. M.

(2011). Addressing common method variance: Guidelines for survey research on information technology, operations, and supply chain management. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, 58(3), 578-588. https://doi.org/10.1109/TEM.2011.2136437

26.

Cropley

A. J.

(2000). Defining and measuring creativity: Are creativity tests worth using? Roeper Review, 23(2), 72-79. https://doi.org/10.1080/02783190009554069

27.

Curran

J. M.

Rosen

D. E.

(2006). Student attitudes toward college courses: An examination of influences and intentions. Journal of Marketing Education, 28(2), 135-148. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475306288401

28.

Day

Stafford

M. R.

(1997). Age-related cues in retail services advertising: Their effects on younger consumers. Journal of Retailing, 73(2), 211-233. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0022-4359(97)90004-X

29.

Deeter-Schmelz

D. R.

Kennedy

K. N.

Ramsey

R. P.

(2002). Enriching our understanding of student team effectiveness. Journal of Marketing Education, 24(2), 114-124. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475302242004

30.

Elam

E. L.

Spotts

H. E.

(2004). Achieving marketing curriculum integration: A live case study approach. Journal of Marketing Education, 26(1), 50-65. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475303262351

31.

Fan

M. D.

Cai

W. J.

(2020). How does a creative learning environment foster student creativity? An examination on multiple explanatory mechanisms. Current Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12144-020-00974-z

32.

Fischer

Dietz

Antonakis

(2016). Leadership process models: A review and synthesis. Journal of Management, 43(6), 1726-1753. https://doi.org/10.1177/0149206316682830

33.

Fornell

Bookstein

F. L.

(1982). Two structural equation models: LISREL and PLS applied to consumer exit-voice theory. Journal of Marketing Research, 19(4), 440-452. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378201900406

34.

Fornell

Larcker

D. F.

(1981). Evaluating structural equation models with unobservable variables and measurement error. Journal of Marketing Research, 18(3), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.1177/002224378101800104

35.

Gielnik

M. M.

Frese

Graf

J. M.

Kampschulte

(2012). Creativity in the opportunity identification process and the moderating effect of diversity of information. Journal of Business Venturing, 27(5), 559-576. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusvent.2011.10.003

36.

Granovetter

M. S.

(1973). The strength of weak ties. American Journal of Sociology, 78(6), 1360-1380. https://doi.org/10.1086/225469

37.

Grier

S. A.

(2019). Marketing inclusion: A social justice project for diversity education. Journal of Marketing Education, 42(1), 59-75. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475319878829

38.

Grusec

J. E.

(1992). Social learning theory and developmental psychology: The legacies of Robert Sears and Albert Bandura. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 776-786. https://doi.org/10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.776

39.

Hackman

(1987). The design of work teams. In Lorsch

(Ed.), Handbook of organizational behavior (pp. 315-342). Prentice Hall.

40.

Hanna

R. C.

Crittenden

V. L.

Crittenden

W. F.

(2013). Social learning theory: A multicultural study of influences on ethical behavior. Journal of Marketing Education, 35(1), 18-25. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475312474279

41.

Hao

Huang

Long

L. R.

Hiller

N. J.

S. L.

(2020). Different roles of shared and vertical leadership in promoting team creativity: Cultivating and synthesizing team members’ individual creativity. Personnel Psychology, 73(1), 199-225. https://doi.org/10.1111/peps.12321

42.

Hennessey

B. A.

(2015). Creative behavior, motivation, environment and culture: The building of a systems model. Journal of Creative Behavior, 49(3), 194-210. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.97

43.

Hill

M. E.

McGinnis

(2007). The curiosity in marketing thinking. Journal of Marketing Education, 29(1), 52-62.

44.

Hoever

I. J.

Van Knippenberg

Van Ginkel

W. P.

Barkema

H. G.

(2012). Fostering team creativity: Perspective taking as key to unlocking diversity’s potential. Journal of Applied Psychology, 97(5), 982-996. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0029159

45.

Hollenbeck

C. R.

Mason

C. H.

Song

J. H.

(2011). Enhancing student learning in marketing courses: An exploration of fundamental principles for website platforms. Journal of Marketing Education, 33(2), 171-182. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475311410850

46.

Homer

P. M.

(1995). Ad size as in indicator of perceived advertising costs and effort: The effects on memory and perceptions. Journal of Advertising, 24(Winter), 1-12. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.1995.10673485

47.

Ilgen

D. R.

Hollenbeck

J. R.

Johnson

Jundt

(2005). Teams in organizations: From input-process-output models to IMOI models. Annual Review of Psychology, 56, 517-543. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.psych.56.091103.070250

48.

Jaramillo

Spector

P. E.

(2004). The effect of action orientation on the academic performance of undergraduate marketing majors. Journal of Marketing Education, 26(3), 250-260. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475304268780

49.

Jaskari

M.-M.

(2013). The challenge of assessing creative problem solving in client-based marketing development projects: A SOLO taxonomy approach. Journal of Marketing Education, 35(3), 231-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475313485586

50.

Kark

Shamir

Chen

(2003). The two faces of transformational leadership: Empowerment and dependency. Journal of Applied Psychology, 88(2), 246-255. https://doi.org/10.1037/0021-9010.88.2.246

51.

Kaufman

J. C.

(2019). Self-assessments of creativity: Not ideal, but better than you think. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 13(2), 187-192. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000217

52.

Kemp

Randon McDougal

Syrdal

(2018). The matchmaking activity: An experiential learning exercise on influencer marketing for the digital marketing classroom. Journal of Marketing Education, 41(2), 141-153. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475318803415

53.

Kilgour

Koslow

(2009). Why and how do creative thinking techniques work? Trading off originality and appropriateness to make more creative advertising. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 37(3), 298-309. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-009-0133-5

54.

Kohn

Smith

S. M.

(2009). Partly versus completely out of your mind: Effects of incubation and distraction on resolving fixation. Journal of Creative Behavior, 43(2), 102-118. https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2162-6057.2009.tb01309.x

55.

Kolb

D. A.

(1984). Experiential learning: Experience as the source of learning and development. Prentice-Hall.

56.

Krishen

A. S.

(2013). Catch it if you can: How contagious motivation improves group projects and course satisfaction. Journal of Marketing Education, 35(3), 220-230. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475313495857

57.

Krishen

A. S.

Kirkendall

(2016). Teaching outside the rubric: Qualitative student insights about creativity. Journal of Strategic Management Education, 11, 1-16.

58.

Kutlubay

O. C.

Uslay

(2019). The varying role of social ties on team performance: Evidence from the marketing classroom. Marketing Education Review, 29(1), 37-51. https://doi.org/10.1080/10528008.2019.1565943

59.

Leopold

T. A.

Ratcheva

V. S.

Zahidi

(2018). The future of jobs report 2018. https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-future-of-jobs-report-2018

60.

Liu

Jiang

Shalley

C. E.

Keem

Zhou

(2016). Motivational mechanisms of employee creativity: A meta-analytic examination and theoretical extension of the creativity literature. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 137(November), 236-263. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.obhdp.2016.08.001

61.

Corter

J. E.

(2019). The effect of manipulating group task orientation and support for innovation on collaborative creativity in an educational setting. Thinking Skills and Creativity, 33(September), Article 100587. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tsc.2019.100587

62.

MacKenzie

S. B.

Podsakoff

P. M.

(2012). Common method bias in marketing: Causes, mechanisms, and procedural remedies. Journal of Retailing, 88(4), 542-555. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2012.08.001

63.

Marr

(2019, October 28). The 10+ most important job skills every company will be looking for in 2020. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/10/28/the-10-most-important-job-skills-every-company-will-be-looking-for-in-2020/#70c7fb8167b6

64.

McCorkle

D. E.

Payan

J. M.

Reardon

Kling

N. D.

(2007). Perceptions and reality: Creativity in the marketing classroom. Journal of Marketing Education, 29(3), 254-261. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475307306892

65.

Mueller

J. S.

Kamdar

(2011). Why seeking help from teammates is a blessing and a curse: A theory of help seeking and individual creativity in team contexts. Journal of Applied Psychology, 96(2), 263-276. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0021574

66.

Nathan

Lee

(2013). Cultural diversity, innovation, and entrepreneurship: Firm-level evidence from London. Economic Geography, 89(4), 367-394. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecge.12016

67.

Neu

W. A.

(2018). Quantitative evidence of students’ use of social networks and social categorization when self-selecting teams. Journal of Marketing Education, 40(3), 161-175. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475318757583

68.

Nunnally

J. C.

(1978). Psychometric theory (2nd ed.). McGraw-Hill.

69.

Perry-Smith

J. E.

Shalley

C. E.

(2003). The social side of creativity: A static and dynamic social network perspective. Academy of Management Review, 28(1), 89-106. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.2003.8925236

70.

Petrone

(2019). The skills companies need most in 2019: And how to learn them. https://learning.linkedin.com/blog/top-skills/the-skills-companies-need-most-in-2019–and-how-to-learn-them

71.

Phillips

K. W.

(2014). How diversity makes us smarter. Scientific American, 311(4), 43-47. https://doi.org/10.1038/scientificamerican1014-42

72.

Pretz

J. E.

McCollum

V. A.

(2014). Self-perceptions of creativity do not always reflect actual creative performance. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(2), 227-236. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035597

73.

Rodríguez-Sánchez

A. M.

Devloo

Rico

Salanova

Anseel

(2017). What makes creative teams tick? Cohesion, engagement, and performance across creativity tasks: A three-wave study. Group & Organization Management, 42(4), 521-547. https://doi.org/10.1177/1059601116636476

74.

Runco

M. A.

Acar

(2012). Divergent thinking as an indicator of creative potential. Creativity Research Journal, 24(1), 66-75. https://doi.org/10.1080/10400419.2012.652929

75.

Seyedghorban

Tahernejad

Matanda

M. J.

(2016). Reinquiry into advertising avoidance on the internet: A conceptual replication and extension. Journal of Advertising, 45(1), 120-129. https://doi.org/10.1080/00913367.2015.1085819

76.

Slavich

G. M.

Zimbardo

P. G.

(2012). Transformational teaching: Theoretical underpinnings, basic principles, and core methods. Educational Psychology Review, 24(4), 569-608. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-012-9199-6

77.

Smith

S. M.

Beda

(2020). Old problems in new contexts: The context-dependent fixation hypothesis. Journal of Experimental Psychology-General, 149(1), 192-197. https://doi.org/10.1037/xge0000615

78.

Smith

S. M.

Blankenship

S. E.

(1991). Incubation and the persistence of fixation in problem solving. American Journal of Psychology, 104(1), 61-87. https://doi.org/10.2307/1422851

79.

Smith

S. M.

Linsey

(2011). A three-pronged approach for overcoming design fixation. The Journal of Creative Behavior, 45(2), 83-91.

80.

Smith

S. M.

Handy

J. D.

Hernandez

Jacoby

L. L.

(2018). Context specificity of automatic influences of memory. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 44(10), 1501-1513. https://doi.org/10.1037/xlm0000523

81.

Smith

S. M.

Linsey

J. S.

Kerne

(2011). Using Evolved Analogies to Overcome Creative Design Fixation. In Taura

Nagai

(Eds.), Design Creativity 2010 (pp. 35-39). Springer London.

82.

Snyder

H. T.

Sowden

P. T.

Silvia

P. J.

Kaufman

J. C.

(2020). The creative self: Do people distinguish creative self-perceptions, efficacy, and personal identity? Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 15(4), 627-636. https://doi.org/10.1037/aca0000317

83.

Spreng

R. A.

MacKenzie

S. B.

Olshavsky

R. W.

(1996). A reexamination of the determinants of consumer satisfaction. Journal of Marketing, 60(3), 15-32.

84.

Steele

L. M.

Johnson

Medeiros

K. E.

(2018). Looking beyond the generation of creative ideas: Confidence in evaluating ideas predicts creative outcomes. Personality and Individual Differences, 125(April), 21-29. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2017.12.028

85.

Taylor

S. A.

Hunter

G. L.

Melton

Goodwin

S. A.

(2011). Student engagement and marketing classes. Journal of Marketing Education, 33(1), 73-92. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475310392542

86.

Titus

P. A.

(2000). Marketing and the creative problem-solving process. Journal of Marketing Education, 22(3), 225-235. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475300223006

87.

Titus

P. A.

(2018). Exploring creative marketing thought: Divergent ideation processes and outcomes. Psychology & Marketing, 35(3), 237-248. https://doi.org/10.1002/mar.21083

88.

Wang

X.-H.

Kim

T.-Y.

Lee

D.-R.

(2016). Cognitive diversity and team creativity: Effects of team intrinsic motivation and transformational leadership. Journal of Business Research, 69(9), 3231-3239. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2016.02.026

89.

Woodman

Sawyer

Griffin

(1993). Toward a theory of organizational creativity. Academy of Management Review, 18(1), 293-321. https://doi.org/10.5465/amr.1993.3997517

90.

Young

M. R.

(2010). Transforming the initial marketing education experience: An action learning approach. Journal of Marketing Education, 32(1), 13-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/0273475309335353

91.

Zahorik

J. A.

(1997). Encouraging and challenging students’ understandings. Educational Leadership, 54(6), 30-32. http://www.ascd.org/publications/educational-leadership/mar97/vol54/num06/Encouraging%E2%80%94and-Challenging%E2%80%94Students'-Understandings.aspx

92.

Zhang

Bartol

K. M.

(2010). Linking empowering leadership and employee creativity: The influence of psychological empowerment, intrinsic motivation, and creative process engagement. Academy of Management Journal, 53(1), 107-128.

93.

Zhang

Z. T. S.

Hoxha

Aljughaiman

Arenliu

Gomez-Arizaga

M. P.

Gucyeter

Ponomareva

Shi

Irueste

Rogl

Nunez

Ziegler

(2020). Social environmental factors and personal motivational factors associated with creative achievement: A cross-cultural perspective. Journal of Creative Behavior. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.463

94.

Zhou

Hoever

I. J.

(2014). Research on workplace creativity: A review and redirection. Annual Review of Organizational Psychology and Organizational Behavior, 1(1), 333-359. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-orgpsych-031413-091226