Cross-Cultural Innovation : Results of the 8th European Conference on Creativity and Innovation

Numerous experts on creativity and innovation from Belgium, China, France, Germany, Israel, Japan, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Taiwan, United Kingdom and USA present papers on cross-cultural innovation in particular and on creativity and innovation in general. Topics are new thoughts, theories and models; empirical research; practical reports from business experience; practical reports using methods and technology; practical reports from education.

The first idea for the topic of the 8th European Conference on Creativity and Innovation was CROSS-CULTURAL CREATIVITY. It came up from discus- sions with businessmen, politicians and leaders of non profit organisations who agreed that cross-cultural teams are more successful. Especially in a global world the probability for sustainable success will rise if managers are aware of cross-cultural aspects in future problem solutions. Cross-cultural means not only the differences between ethnic, racial or na- tional groups. It is more. Cross-cultural confrontations arise by the differences of genders, educational levels, differences in thinking of diverse companies' departments (e.g. production versus research & development, marketing ver- sus finance), the mix of musicians or styles of painting. However, there is a lot of danger in cross-cultural collaboration: Diversity means different views, opinions, values and objectives easily generating misunderstandings and quarrels possibly ending up with serious conflicts. The conflicts may trigger new approaches and breakthroughs or lead to astate of frozen relations and stagnation. Sensitivity to the values and views of other cultures, open communication and aware leadership are traits helping to capitalize on cross-cultural influences. In further discussions with our friends of the EACI board we changed our mind for the new conference topic to CROSS-CULTURAL INNOVATION.