The bright and dark sides of individual and group innovation:A Special Issue introduction

This introduction essay proposes a challenging program for researchers eager to explore factors and process mechanisms contributing to the benefits and costs individuals and groups incur from pursuing innovative approaches. With respect to individual innovation, such moderating factors might be found in the characteristics of the innovative idea, the innovator, co-workers, supervisors, the broader organizational context, and in national culture. Examples of factors that are likely to shape the beneficial and detrimental outcomes of group innovation include knowledge, skills and ability of group members, group tenure, diversity among group members, group processes (clarifying group objectives, participation, constructive management of competing perspectives), and external demands on groups. This Special Issue contains a state-of-the-science paper, three articles dealing with the benefits and costs of individual innovation, and three articles addressing the bright and dark sides of group innovation. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

The future's bright: celebrating its achievements and preparing for the challenges ahead in IPA research

Commentary

Tiger, tiger, burning bright? Industrial policy “lessons” from Ireland for small African economies

The chapter examines possibilities for industrial policy in African countries through the lens of lessons that can be learned from the industrial policy approaches pursued in Ireland as well as in East Asia. As latecomers to industrialization, the small African economies are well positioned to undertake such an exercise, we suggest. This chapter provides some novel insights by providing a comparison between Ireland and the small African economies. To our knowledge such a comparison offers a unique contribution. Cognizant of the fact that a “one size fits all” approach to industrial policy is not appropriate in the African context, we argue in favor of the adoption of a more “holistic” approach to industrial policy in these economies. Such an approach we argue should focus simultaneously on demand and supply factors of industrial development, and on microeconomic as well as macroeconomic factors.

Where do bright ideas occur in our brain? Meta-analytic evidence from neuroimaging studies of domain-specific creativity

Many studies have assessed the neural underpinnings of creativity, failing to find a clear anatomical localization. We aimed to provide evidence for a multi-componential neural system for creativity. We applied a general activation likelihood estimation (ALE) meta-analysis to 45 fMRI studies. Three individual ALE analyses were performed to assess creativity in different cognitive domains (Musical, Verbal, and Visuo-spatial). The general ALE revealed that creativity relies on clusters of activations in the bilateral occipital, parietal, frontal, and temporal lobes. The individual ALE revealed different maximal activation in different domains. Musical creativity yields activations in the bilateral medial frontal gyrus, in the left cingulate gyrus, middle frontal gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule and in the right postcentral and fusiform gyri. Verbal creativity yields activations mainly located in the left hemisphere, in the prefrontal cortex, middle and superior temporal gyri, inferior parietal lobule, postcentral and supramarginal gyri, middle occipital gyrus, and insula. The right inferior frontal gyrus and the lingual gyrus were also activated. Visuo-spatial creativity activates the right middle and inferior frontal gyri, the bilateral thalamus and the left precentral gyrus. This evidence suggests that creativity relies on multi-componential neural networks and that different creativity domains depend on different brain regions.

Bright and dark vector rogue waves

For an Erbium-doped mode locked fibre laser, we demonstrate experimentally a new type of vector rogue waves (RWs) emergence of which is caused by the coherent coupling of the orthogonal states of polarisation (SOPs). Unlike weak interaction between neighbouring dissipative solitons for the soliton rain, this creates a new type of the energy landscape where the interaction of the orthogonal SOPs leads to polarisation trapping or escapes from the trapping triggered by polarisation instabilities and so results in the pulse dynamics satisfying criteria of the 'dark' and 'bright' RWs. The obtained results, apart from the fundamental interest, can provide a base for development of the rogue waves mitigation techniques in the context of the applications in photonics and beyond.