Idea generation and design-by-analogy are core parts of design. Designers need tools to assist them in developing creative and innovative ideas. Analogy is one such tool that helps designers solve design problems. It is a stimulus that helps generate innovative solutions to a design problem. It is used to generate novel ideas by transferring information (i.e. mapping elements) from a known domain (base) to an unknown domain (target). Multiple solutions can be developed based on a single analog and designers derive principles of design from the analogs (products) they experience. There is little research that discusses creating multiple solutions from a single analog or how multiple analogs can assist designers in mapping high level principles of design. Multiple paths are available to improve the design-by-analogy process and help designers understand the process better. This thesis explores two phases of design-by-analogy in which designers have difficulty generating multiple inferences from a single source analog and identifying high level principles given multiple example analogs in the presence of noise. Two hypotheses are proposed to explore the importance of analogies in design. 1. A lone designer is able to generate multiple inferences from a single source analog when instructed to do so. 2. The mapping of high level principles increases with the increase in the number of example analogs and decreases with the amount of noise. Two experiments, "Multiple Solutions" and "Multiple Analogies" are conducted to answer the proposed research questions and to understand how designers can become better analogical reasoners. The results from the "Multiple Solutions" experiment show that engineers, when directed to, can create multiple solutions from a single analog. Results from the "Multiple Analogies" experiment also satisfy the hypothesis that the mapping of high level principles increases with an increase in the number of analogs and decreases with distracters. A significant interaction is also observed between these two factors. The results indicate more future work with a greater sample size.

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Risk identification is the first step of risk management for construction projects. Project experts use many different methods to identify risk factors, such as decision trees, standard checklists, questionnaires and the Hazard and Operability procedure, but brainstorming sessions are among the most successful methods for identifying risks offering advantages not encountered in any of the others identification methods. Although the brainstorming technique is widespread in the construction industry, it typically is not used to its full capacity. This may be due to brainstorming literature ambiguity, variations in reporting technique usage in the literature, and lack of a methodology outlining the use of the brainstorming technique specifically for risk identification purposes. In this thesis, the merits, procedures, and appropriate applications of the brainstorming technique are outlined. Implications of the session, the session leader, the participants, and the output are explored, and best practices for risk identification brainstorming sessions are identified. / Construction Engineering and Management

Designers use various representations to externalize their ideas, physical models being an important one. Physical models are widely used by designers and their use is promoted as an effective design tool by industry and government agencies. However, very little is known about the cognitive effects of physical models in the design process; the available guidelines are conflicting. Some researchers argue for the frequent implementation of physical models, while others observe that the use of physical models fixates designers. In light of these conflicts, the research discussed in this dissertation focuses on understanding the cognitive effects of physical models and developing guidelines for aiding designers in their implementation. A combination of controlled lab studies and qualitative studies is adopted to achieve said goal. The results from the controlled studies show that physical models supplement designers’ erroneous mental models and help them to come up with more ideas satisfying the problem requirements. These studies also demonstrate that design fixation is not inherent in physical modeling, but it is caused by the Sunk Cost Effect. According to Sunk Cost Effect, as designers spend more time building physical models of their initial ideas, they tend to fixate more to the variations of those ideas. A qualitative study on industry-sponsored projects and development cases of award-winning products further supports these results in more realistic situations. Further, the studies reported in this dissertation show that physical models can be effective tools for the mitigation of fixation to undesirable design features in a flawed example; however, these results can also depend upon the experience level of a designer in solving open-ended design problems. With these insights from the series of studies, a set of guidelines and a Model Error Reeducation Method (MERM) are formulated and tested with novice designers. MERM helps designers in identifying critical loads and interface designs they miss in their original designs, before prototyping. The results from the testing of this method show that this method is very useful in avoiding said errors in physical modeling.

Purpose: The study that has been conducted is a comparative one, where the group compared different innovation management strategies used by three different globally- known Swedish firms that are in the manufacturing industry. The study is aimed at describing, analyzing and making conclusions of the innovation strategies used during the process of product development in the chosen companies bycomparing their similarities and differences. Method: The Study was carried out using a comparative study drawing on the qualitative data. Conclusion: Volvo CE and ABB CRC have similar strategies in internal idea generation because both firms have formalized systems, by using strong online data bases for idea sharing and evaluation. Volvo CE uses a pronounced forum called “Innovation Jams” for online idea sharing among Volvo Group employees whereas ABB CRC uses a strong data base called “ABB Inside” to evaluate ideas within the group. On the other hand, Scania R&D’s internal idea generation process is more informal as it is based on “person-to-person”. When it comes to external idea generation, Scania R&D has a more established strategy of using suppliers and customers for inspiration of ideas. However, ABB CRC generates inspirations from customers through its business centers, whereas Volvo CE has no customer system in place. But one thing that is common in all the three companies is that they are highly collaborating with universities for idea generation and human resource.

To respond effectively in today's quickly changing, highly complex business environment, management must depend on organizational members' mental capacities to generate new and meaningful ideas. Consequently, creativity has evolved into a fundamental organizational resource useful in establishing and maintaining competitive advantage. One relatively new set of tools intended to augment the creative process is Idea-Generation Support System (IGSS). These computer-based tools are generally aimed at enhancing boundary-breaking, insightful thought during problem solving. However, if a IGSS were to directly enhance creative performance, the benefits could be multifaceted. For example, students could use the IGSS for reinforcing techniques learned in formal creativity training. Or, by matching IGSS tools to specific lesson needs, the IGSS might enable teachers to better enhance student's creative performance. Due to (1) the effects of culture gap on system performance and user satisfaction, (2) the lack of clear empirical evidence concerning the value of an IGSS, there is also little theoretical justification. Each IGSS appears to provide a different methodology for enhancing creativity with little more than anecdotal reasoning to justify the approach; a laboratory experiment was conducted to evaluate the performance of IGSS developed in Taiwan. The results suggest that responses generated with software support are significantly more novel and valuable than responses without software support. It is hoped the findings from this investigation can be used to improve individual creative performance, further research concerning factors relevant to creativity, and guide future IGSS development efforts.

The success of the new product development (NPD) process is vital for the survival of projects. Especially for small entrepreneurial projects that try to survive in a very competitive environment, affected by constant market and technical changes. Previous literature emphasize the importance of the generation of new ideas, to improve the product concept during the pre-development stage, but it did not pay a lot of attention to the sources of ideas. For this reason, this study aims to develop the knowledge concerning the sources of ideas of small entrepreneurial projects, during the fuzzy front-end (FFE). The literature review of this study presents the previous researches that relate to the sources of ideas, during the idea generation stage of the FFE. The structure of the existing model, integrating the sources of ideas, is based on three categories: environmental scanning, innovative organizational culture and joint research. An inductive study and a research, based on the analysis of one small high-tech entrepreneurial project, were conducted to cover the literature gap. This choice of methodology reflects the experimental purpose of this research. The empirical data are only primary data, collected by analyzing the diaries of the two entrepreneurs involved in the project. Our findings reveal that contact with lead user, entrepreneur experience, customer involvement, brainstorming sessions, competitor analysis, resource constraints and prototype conception represent the main sources of ideas of small entrepreneurial projects in the FFE. The practical purpose of this study is to offer some advices to entrepreneurs of small entrepreneurial projects for accessing to sources of ideas, during the idea generation stage of the FFE, and manage their impact on the development of the product concept. The theoretical implications contribute to the identification of new sources of ideas and a proposition of framework of their impact.

This body of work is composed of three individual papers that each seek to explain individual differences in creative cognition. Paper 1 used structural equation modeling to examine the ways in which creative problem solving and creative idea generation relate or differ. Results from Paper 1 demonstrate that divergent thinking and creative problem solving are best represented as a bifactor model, bearing distinct domain-specific factors, as well as a shared domain-general factor. Though working memory and fluency of memory retrieval explained significant portions of the domain-specific constructs, they only explained ~2% of variance in the domain-general factor. Paper 2 explores the idea that domain-general creativity can be attributed to the structure of one’s knowledge. Semantic networks were developed and compared across high and low general creativity, divergent thinking, creative problem solving, and working memory. Results indicated that, in general, a looser network structure is more amenable for flexible thought processes across multiple classifications of creative ability. Paper 3 explores the idea that domain-general creativity can be attributed to one’s ability to overcome salient, prepotent responses. More specifically, Paper 3 argues that the presence of ambiguities enhances the likelihood that someone will develop a faulty mental representation that requires restructuring in order to reach the desired solution or response. Results demonstrate that overcoming ambiguities in language comprehension draws on similar processes as creative problem solving: ambiguous language comprehension predicted creative problem solving above and beyond that of working memory, fluid intelligence, or normal sentence comprehension. Importantly, this relationship was unique to creative problem solving, as the effect disappeared when predicting analytic problem solving. Together, these studies suggest that the ability to overcome ambiguities and the organization of one’s semantic knowledge are both critical components underlying creativity. More generally, this work has highlighted the ways in which domain-specific and domain-general processes are unique or shared across different measures of creativity, and researchers should be aware of these relationships as they work to advance the creativity literature.

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This thesis sets out to explore factors external to the individual that encourage creative idea generation in SME environments, understanding their importance in a variety of organisational contexts. The original contribution to knowledge made by this thesis is the creation of a framework which aids understanding by splitting the various factors into those responsible for initiating and sustaining idea generation. Literature concerning creative idea generation is continuously developing and contains a broad spectrum of topics and understandings. Key amongst these are leadership, the nature of creative idea generation, theories such as the ‘strength of weak ties’, collective creativity and the concept of ‘flow’. Fieldwork followed a primarily qualitative, inductive approach, using exploratory surveys, semi-structured interviews and participant observation to develop rich narrative ‘stories’ of idea generation for ten different organisations. Data was analysed in accordance with the principles of grounded theory and resulted in numerous novel findings such as the importance of internal organisational contacts to the development of ideas, the notion that organisational visions can be used to guide idea generation and the effect that physical distance has on the development of interpersonal ties. Leadership also featured heavily within the analysis process with it being found that a combination of transformational and servant qualities best enables idea generation in SME contexts. These and other findings were reflected in the final framework produced by this thesis. From a practical perspective findings from this study arguably have implications for both organisational and leadership development in SME contexts, although overall generalisability is hindered by the chosen sample. Future studies could potentially focus on applying quantitative methodologies to verify the final framework or extend understandings by interlinking organisational factors discussed by this thesis with individual characteristics, mental process and/or experiences that are also known to drive creative idea production.