Fostering Corporate Innovation Activities through Artist-Created Boundary Media

Abstract

Innovation activities in companies are essential for maintaining competitiveness in the market. In the early stages of innovation, which is known as “Fuzzy Front End”, diversity is crucial aspect. However, managing this diversity can be challenging due to conflicts caused by factors related to differences in positions or expertise. This paper introduce three types of Boundary Media (BM), which are panels explaining existing ideas, idea sketch sheets for activity participants to describe their ideas, and artist-created artworks, they were introduced into the early stages of two corporate innovation activities and researchers verified their effects. The artist conducted interviews to understand activity background, challenges, and vision of each innovation activity and created unique artworks that embodied the themes of the innovation activities based on the inspiration gained from the interviews. These works were introduced in idea creation workshops conducted for each innovation activity, and their effects were examined. The results showed that the artworks served as powerful sources of inspiration, eliciting participants' tacit knowledge, providing new perspectives, and facilitating intrinsic motivation for innovation. The workshops generated an average of more than two ideas per participant, yielding ideas and perspectives different from those of conventional models, which will be considered afterward. Notably, one of the two companies, recognized that the artist's work expressed the essence of their innovation activity and resonating with it, subsequently artists commissioned to create a logo for the innovation activity. This indicates that the artist-created works influenced the long-term direction of the innovation activity. The results of this study suggest that artists creating unique works that embody innovation activities and intervening in innovation activities as Boundary Media can stimulate the tacit knowledge of activity members, appeal to their creativity, and encourage them to recapture the essential concepts of the innovation activities, potentially fostering innovation activities. Future research will clarify the specific qualities and unique characteristics of artworks and the mechanisms of intervention effects on innovation activities to encourage practitioners foster innovation activities.

Keywords: Boundary Media, Innovation Activities, Artistic Intervention, Workshop, Creativity, Diversity Management

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1004731