Creativity and Innovation for Sustainability—State of the Art and Future Perspectives

Dear Colleagues,

Creativity and innovation are key areas for research, for companies and even countries to foster economic development. Hence, this Special Issue aims to gather current research on creativity and innovation, and how these areas foster sustainability on a micro level (e.g., individuals or companies), as well as on a macro level (e.g., industries or countries).

Creativity and innovation are two multi-disciplinary fields of scientific research by themselves [1]. Sustainability is also a multi-disciplinary discipline. Hence, the potential for combining knowledge and research approaches from creativity and innovation with sustainability is unlimited. Surprisingly, there is still a huge gap in literature adressing this interesting intersection. Hence, we are excited to introduce this Special Issue on “Creativity and Innovation for Sustainability—State-of-the-Art and Future Perspectives”.

Creativity is usually defined as the generation of products that are novel and useful within a given social context [2]. Innovation usually involves the successful implementation of novel and useful ideas [3]. When examining the implications of creativity and innovation for sustainability, several possibilities come to mind. One can think of novel and useful approaches to obtain sustainability, conduct research on sustainability, or even define what sustainability should be. Similarly, one can think about the challenges involved in implementing a novel and useful idea to seek sustainability.

Hence, we invite researchers from different disciplines to submit their work on sustainability from the perspective of creativity and innovation (and vice versa). We are specifically calling for novel methods in approaching creativity, innovation and sustainability, as well as international research approaches.

Some potential (not binding) areas of investigation for creativity and innovation:

• Novel and useful conceptual definitions of sustainability
• Novel and useful theoretical models of sustainability
• Novel and useful ideas to solve environmental, social problems with implications for sustainability
• Novel and useful methodological approaches to conduct research on sustainability
• Novel and useful approaches to ethics and sustainability
• Challenges faced when implementing novel and useful solutions to problems of sustainability
• Technological developments with implications for sustainability

References

1. Brem, A.; Puente-Diaz, R.; Agogué, M. Creativity and innovation: state of the art and future perspectives for research. J. Innov. Manag. 2016, 20, 1602001.
2. Stein, M.I. Creativity and culture. J. 1953, 36, 311–322.
3. Amabile, T.M. (1988). A model of creativity and innovation in organizations. Organ. Behav. 1988, 10, 123–167.

Prof. Dr. Alexander Brem
Prof. Dr. Rogelio Puente-Diaz
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Sustainability is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2400 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Creativity
• Innovation
• Sustainability
• Psychology
• Design Thinking
• New Work
• Social Innovation
• Self-beliefs
• Creativity Measurement
• Digitalisation