1st Symposium of Underground Creativity and Innovation

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Time: 12.30pm - 4.30pm
Price: free

Please note submissions are now closed.

Please scroll to the bottom of this page for full programme.

This event is a celebration of the United Nation's World Creativity and Innovation Day. The day aims to raise awareness of the role of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development.

Background

To enhance creativity and to develop innovations, individuals in large organisations often have to immerse into underground organisational activities that have no formal support and are otherwise rejected by the leadership of the organisation. Underground research is important for the management of firms in the following ways:

• it emerges as a potential link between individual creativity and formal innovation. Companies should accept covert research as a ‘biotope' for actively creative people
• it highlights a set of self-regulating mechanisms in corporate organisations and how creative employees may attempt to bridge corporate paradoxes
• underground R&D and other underground activities play an essential role in the competence building process of the organisation
• employees who develop projects in the underground have a high degree of organizational identification which is important for innovation performance and project acceleration

Despite its contribution to business performance and economic growth, underground creativity and innovation is an underexplored area of research and requires further investigation. 

The Symposium

The Symposium aims to offer further discussion and new insights in underground creativity & innovation focused research and, it includes two parts.

The first part is a Presenter Session which will involve:

• 20 minute Presentations with 10 minute Q&A sessions
• 10 minute Enlightening Talks with 5 minute Q&A sessions

The second part is a Panel Session that will engage a group of panellists in an interactive discussion with the audience on underground creativity & innovation.

An optional virtual networking event will follow upon the completion of the Symposium. 

Who should attend?

• All scholars whose research regularly engages with and/or produces outputs on topics related to underground creativity & innovation are welcome to attend. The Symposium offers a unique opportunity to contribute to the discussion and exploration of underground creativity and innovation focused research and to network with other scholars with similar research interests.  Topics of interest include but not limited to bootlegging (e.g., Augsdörfer, 2005; Criscuolo, Salter, and Ter Wal, 2014; Globocnik & Salomo, 2015, Stephan and Bubenzer, 2019), counter-role behaviors (e.g., Staw & Boettger, 1990), creative deviance (e.g., Lin, Mainemelis, & Kark, 2016; Mainemelis, 2010; Tenzer & Yang, 2020), and rebelliousness (e.g., Petrou et al., 2020; Petrou, Van Der Linder, & Olescu, 2018). 
• Practitioners who wish to establish a professional network, learn more about underground creativity & innovation approaches and explore mentoring opportunities.

A seamless virtual experience

The Symposium will take place on Microsoft Teams online platform. Before the event, please download the app on your device. 

All PowerPoint presentations will be available on MS Teams for an extended period of time allowing for increased reach and impact.

Organiser: 

Evy Sakellariou, Kingston Business School / Future-thinking & Decision-making Research Hub

Scientific Committee: 

• Peter Augsdörfer, Technische Hochschule Ingolstadt
• Charalampos Mainemelis, Alba Graduate Business School 
• Anika Stephan-Korus, HES-SO, School of Management Fribourg (HEG-FR)

Once registered, you will receive a link to join the event in April. 

For further information about this event:

Contact: Dr Evy Sakellariou
Email: E.Sakellariou@kingston.ac.uk