A New Approach of Innovation: from the Knowledge Economy to the Theory of Creativity Applied to Territorial Development

The general idea of this paper is the fact that the theory of innovation cannot be completed as long as the idea of creativity is not introduced in the analysis of the cognitive processes involved. Too often, in innovation studies, novelty is considered as pure knowledge creation. The new approach of creativity in management science, economic geography, or sociology of innovation has revealed the importance of other ingredients than knowledge: entrepreneurship, serendipity, imagination, etc. In particular, creative cities are not just knowledge-based territories. For addressing the issue of creative territories, we need first to define creativity in general and in different domains: in science (discovery), technology (invention), or economy (innovation), as well as in artistic, cultural, or societal fields. We will underline the necessity to be creative in policy design as well. It is not enough to build knowledge infrastructures and to promote human capital or attract “creative people.” Are there recipes for the creative governance of geographical entities? What can we learn from the application of standard policies? And from the new policy paradigms like the Smart specialization strategy of the EU? At microeconomic level, entrepreneurs and creative organizations must deal with the exploration/exploitation issues and find an acceptable tradeoff. Territories must also find relevant governance structures and procedures for the “creative” design of development strategies. In this perspective, they can rely on certain actors of the innovation process, like knowledge-based business services, and some talented individuals, for implementing the necessary distributed intelligence.