The importance of company culture in supporting creativity and innovativeness in small and mid-sized companies
Kymäläinen, Eveliina (2021)
2021
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Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021112321372
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2021112321372
Tiivistelmä
Finland's ranking in the Top 50 most innovative countries in the Bloomberg Innovation Index survey has been declining since 2015. These days, creativity and new innovations are crucial for businesses, especially since the market is dependent on innovative, ground-breaking technology. These creative business ideas set companies apart from one another, and it can be the difference between the success and failure of a company. The decline in innovation indexes is not the only motivator for this thesis. The corona pandemic has forced many companies to quickly adapt to new kind of functioning models, and has shown that innovative companies can thrive even in extreme situations. That is why I think this subject is worth researching.
This thesis is a qualitative research that includes case study research examining the company culture of one specific company. This thesis examines what kind of company culture-related factors encourage creativity and innovativeness, and aims to find ways to improve them to maximise innovation effectiveness. It suggests ways how companies could increase creative thinking and the innovativeness of their personnel, and make it a part of their company culture and strategy. This thesis focuses mainly on small- and mid-sized companies on Finland’s scale, but can be useful also for bigger companies.
As a data collection method for the case study, six interviews were conducted in an award-winning brand and experience studio: BOND Creative Agency 24.8.–3.9.2021. As an interview style I used a semi-structured interview, for which I made two different question frames: one for founders and one for regular employees.
The theoretical framework of this thesis focuses on explaining more thoroughly some concepts that are needed in understanding the importance of creativity and innovativeness in companies. It dives deeper into the behaviours of Finnish employees, while taking into consideration some cultural factors as well. This part also introduces the two main innovation indexes that are used as a base for this thesis, and explains which indicators are measured and compared to get the final result in the rankings. In addition, this part introduces some main elements of company culture.
With this research I came to the conclusion that company culture plays a significant role in encouraging and supporting creativity and innovation in companies. That fact has been acknowledged worldwide but many companies struggle with embedding creativity and innovation into their company culture and company culture into their strategy. The research also highlights the importance of Human Recourses in forming and maintaining desired company culture.
This thesis is a qualitative research that includes case study research examining the company culture of one specific company. This thesis examines what kind of company culture-related factors encourage creativity and innovativeness, and aims to find ways to improve them to maximise innovation effectiveness. It suggests ways how companies could increase creative thinking and the innovativeness of their personnel, and make it a part of their company culture and strategy. This thesis focuses mainly on small- and mid-sized companies on Finland’s scale, but can be useful also for bigger companies.
As a data collection method for the case study, six interviews were conducted in an award-winning brand and experience studio: BOND Creative Agency 24.8.–3.9.2021. As an interview style I used a semi-structured interview, for which I made two different question frames: one for founders and one for regular employees.
The theoretical framework of this thesis focuses on explaining more thoroughly some concepts that are needed in understanding the importance of creativity and innovativeness in companies. It dives deeper into the behaviours of Finnish employees, while taking into consideration some cultural factors as well. This part also introduces the two main innovation indexes that are used as a base for this thesis, and explains which indicators are measured and compared to get the final result in the rankings. In addition, this part introduces some main elements of company culture.
With this research I came to the conclusion that company culture plays a significant role in encouraging and supporting creativity and innovation in companies. That fact has been acknowledged worldwide but many companies struggle with embedding creativity and innovation into their company culture and company culture into their strategy. The research also highlights the importance of Human Recourses in forming and maintaining desired company culture.