The arts is where creativity flourishes and it can be a fertile source of novel, attractive and original ideas for hard pressed business managers, says Peter Robbins, chair of track 7.2 at the 2025 R&D Management Conference.
Art thinking and business
“With so many companies looking for growth through innovation, and so many markets experiencing hyper competition, organisations are looking more widely for original ideas,” says Peter Robbins.
“Firms want differentiation and to get that, they need a richer palette of ideas than those available to their competitors. Hence, many are looking to the arts for inspiration.
“The idea of Art Thinking was first made mainstream around 2014 and now a decade or more of experience has been amassed in this fascinating area with companies using the arts is extraordinarily imaginative ways to boost their internal creativity.”
Track 7.2 The Art of Innovation – How Art Thinking can Boost Innovation Performance
The role of the arts in boosting organisational creativity for corporate innovation has long been a topic of interest to practitioners and academics alike. However, without a clear pathway or route map, embedding the arts into their innovation process will remain merely an elusive aspiration for managers.
This Track explores ways to guide organisations from thinking about engaging with the arts through to systematically integrating them at the heart of their innovation process.
R&D Management Conference 2025:
Innovation & Biodiversity
Institute of Management of Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, Pisa
30 June – 2 July 2025
Track 7.2 The Art of Innovation – How Art Thinking can Boost Innovation Performance
Track chair: Peter Robbins, Dublin City University, Ireland
Co-chairs:
Anne Berthinier-Poncet, CNAM, Paris, France
Daria Podmentia, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
Berit Sandberg, University of Applied Sciences Berlin
