An Empirical Examination of the Value of Creativity Support Systems on Idea Generation

Because organizations seek more innovative ways to compete, the ability of their employees to generate new and valuable ideas becomes a fundamental survival skill. To the extent that computer software might enhance the creative performance of individual users, organizations might ultimately apply such tools to enhance the creative performance of their employees. A controlled laboratory experiment was performed to determine whether two popular creativity support applications significantly enhanced the creative performance of individual users. The results suggest that responses generated with software support are significantly more novel and valuable than responses generated by pen and paper. The results also question the previous creativity research practice of not directly controlling for idea fluency prior to experimental manipulation. It is hoped the findings from this investigation can be used to improve individual creative performance, further research concerning factors relevant to creativity, and guide future ICSS development efforts.