Title: Sparking innovation among alien minds

Authors: Ping Lan

Addresses: School of Management, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775, USA

Abstract: This paper introduces a pragmatic framework for stimulating innovation in people who have little innovation experience - alien minds. It demonstrates that individual's innovation capacity can be activated or enhanced by clarifying misconception associated with innovation and using the framework. The introduced framework has three dimensions which correspond to different leverage in sparking innovative ideas: solution, problem and passion. Each dimension has its own delivery package and training focus. The interaction of the three approaches boosts the stimulant to mass innovation. Mini cases drawn from the application of the framework testify the feasibility for improvising innovation among alien minds.

Keywords: alien minds; mass innovation; inside-a-box innovation; close-to-a-box innovation; above-a-box innovation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBIR.2019.098764

International Journal of Business Innovation and Research, 2019 Vol.18 No.4, pp.472 - 488

Received: 09 Sep 2016
Accepted: 29 Dec 2017
Published online: 02 Apr 2019 *

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