Research focusing on service innovation has seen a significant growth in the last two decades, yet the research on KIBS innovation - and especially on innovation in the creative industries, like advertising - remains rather limited. Due to the increasingly competitive business environment, how KIBS firms co-create with their clients to develop more innovative products or services is becoming more important. Therefore, this research uses the UK advertising industry as a basis to explore the nature of advertising innovation, the service innovation process and the co-creation within it, and how KIBS project innovativeness influences new service development. The literature on service innovation, co-creation and innovativeness involved in developing services or products provides the theoretical foundation for this research. It uses multiple case studies methodology and is based on 45 interviews with advertising managers. The findings of this thesis can be divided into three key areas. First, this study conceptualises the advertising innovation and advertising innovation dimensions and identifies the importance of content innovation and two-sided interface in advertising innovation. Second, the innovation process in the advertising industry can be divided into five phases: the problem diagnosis phase, the creative process, the production phase, the commercialisation phase, and the evaluation and learning phase. (In more detail, the innovation process can be divided into fourteen development stages: client brief, understanding client business, problem diagnosis, strategy planning, creative briefing, idea generation, idea testing, idea selection, idea amplification, production, testing, launch, evaluation, and learning.) This research examines what is meant by co-creation, and identifies how co-creation changes over the course of the service innovation process - where co-creation activities and tasks, and the roles of service firms and their clients, vary across stages of service production. It finds that co-creation between advertising companies and their clients follows a 'W-shaped' curve pattern, with the most intense co-creation in the problem diagnosis phase and the least in the production phase. (The practitioners in these KIBS assert that having too much co-creation activities in the idea generation stage tends to develop uncreative ideas.) Third, as the tasks of KIBS are to fuse generic knowledge with local and special knowledge related to specific problems, to develop problem solutions for their clients, this study conceptualises KIBS project innovativeness as involving two parameters: (1) the knowledge and experience of the problem itself (which relates to problem novelty); (2) the knowledge and experience of developing innovative solutions (solution innovativeness), and explores how KIBS project innovativeness influences new service development. Based on the analysis of KIBS project innovativeness, this study develops a typology of project development in KIBS firms, which includes four types of projects: routine project, new project, solution-led project, and innovative project. This research contributes to understanding the nature of service innovation and co-creation by providing a more thorough understanding of the role of co-creation in the overall new service development process. It also shapes our understanding of KIBS project innovativeness and how it influences new service development.

The aim of this research was to determine the role of the school principal in fostering the creativity and innovativeness of educators. This aim was explored by: determining the nature of creativity and innovativeness; determining the role of the principal in fostering the creativity and innovativeness of educators at schools; and investigating how the creativity and innovativeness of educators is currently fostered at schools. The literature survey on the nature of creativity and innovativeness revealed creativity as the generation of novel and useful ideas and the ability to combine them in a unique way, while innovativeness is the ability to be innovative, i.e. to implement creative outcomes to benefit an organisation or the practical application of ideas towards the organisation's objectives. Creativity and innovativeness can thus be fostered by creating a stimulating work environment that advocates enriched jobs and supporting management practices, an organisational culture that supports innovativeness and an environment that provides adequate resources. Therefore, creativity and innovativeness are a function of an organisational climate that promotes nine dimensions, namely, challenge and involvement, freedom, trust and openness, idea time, idea support, debate, risk-taking, conflict management and humour and playfulness. The empirical survey found that school-organisational climates generally foster educators' creativity and innovativeness in terms of the dimension thereof.-How it was found that some dimensions enjoy more prevalence at schools than others. It was also found that some aspects of these dimensions were inconsistent with the general finding that schools portray climates conducive to educators' creativity and innovativeness. For instance, the involvement of educators in vision review as a way of setting standards or as a pace-setter for performance, and educators having to seek permission before implementing their creative ideas were seen as not fostering creativity and innovativeness at schools. Although there were statistical differences in responses between principals and educators on all creativity and innovativeness dimensions, it was found that these were of no practical significance and thus could be attributed to chance or coincidence. This study therefore recommends that principals should adopt a holistic approach to school organisational creativity and innovativeness. In this way, all the dimensions will be fostered, thus creating school organizational climates that engender the creativity and innovativeness of all educators and focusing on all aspects of their work. Principals should also receive capacity building exercises, initiated both at school and at departmental levels. These exercises should focus on staff development that relates creativity and innovativeness to the achievement of teaching and learning outcomes. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.

The aim of this research was to determine the role of the school principal in fostering the creativity and innovativeness of educators. This aim was explored by: determining the nature of creativity and innovativeness; determining the role of the principal in fostering the creativity and innovativeness of educators at schools; and investigating how the creativity and innovativeness of educators is currently fostered at schools. The literature survey on the nature of creativity and innovativeness revealed creativity as the generation of novel and useful ideas and the ability to combine them in a unique way, while innovativeness is the ability to be innovative, i.e. to implement creative outcomes to benefit an organisation or the practical application of ideas towards the organisation's objectives. Creativity and innovativeness can thus be fostered by creating a stimulating work environment that advocates enriched jobs and supporting management practices, an organisational culture that supports innovativeness and an environment that provides adequate resources. Therefore, creativity and innovativeness are a function of an organisational climate that promotes nine dimensions, namely, challenge and involvement, freedom, trust and openness, idea time, idea support, debate, risk-taking, conflict management and humour and playfulness. The empirical survey found that school-organisational climates generally foster educators' creativity and innovativeness in terms of the dimension thereof.-How it was found that some dimensions enjoy more prevalence at schools than others. It was also found that some aspects of these dimensions were inconsistent with the general finding that schools portray climates conducive to educators' creativity and innovativeness. For instance, the involvement of educators in vision review as a way of setting standards or as a pace-setter for performance, and educators having to seek permission before implementing their creative ideas were seen as not fostering creativity and innovativeness at schools. Although there were statistical differences in responses between principals and educators on all creativity and innovativeness dimensions, it was found that these were of no practical significance and thus could be attributed to chance or coincidence. This study therefore recommends that principals should adopt a holistic approach to school organisational creativity and innovativeness. In this way, all the dimensions will be fostered, thus creating school organizational climates that engender the creativity and innovativeness of all educators and focusing on all aspects of their work. Principals should also receive capacity building exercises, initiated both at school and at departmental levels. These exercises should focus on staff development that relates creativity and innovativeness to the achievement of teaching and learning outcomes. / Thesis (M.Ed.)--North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2005.