Search Results (46)

The aim of this study was to compare IC and CSR and to examine ICr as a mediating variable. The study employed a relational survey design and involved participants drawn from industrial organizations based in Tehran. To evaluate participants’ perceptions of innovation climate, corporate social responsibility, and Individual Creativity, standardized questionnaires were used. In analyzing the findings, the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach was adopted, and the analyses were conducted using SPSS AMOS version 26. The analysis revealed that an Innovative Climate exerts a positive and statistically significant influence on CSR. In addition, a positive and significant association was identified between Innovative Climate and Individual Creativity. The results further demonstrated a meaningful relationship between Individual Creativity and CSR. Finally, to test the hypothesis of partial mediation, the study confirmed that Individual Creativity functions as a mediating mechanism between IC and CSR. Overall, these findings highlight the critical role of an innovative environment in enhancing CSR efforts from the perspective of Individual Creativity, and they provide insight for future studies aimed at developing strategies to strengthen creativity as a strategic means of achieving more effective CSR outcomes. The study advocates the development of an innovation-oriented mindset as a pathway to promoting socially responsible practices within Tehran’s industrial sector. Full article

Negative feedback is both common and important in the creative process. However, research has shown inconsistent effects of negative feedback on creativity, and individual characteristics may moderate the impact of negative feedback on creative performance. This study explores how creative self-efficacy and a creative developmental mindset interact to influence creative performance in response to negative feedback. One hundred and twenty-two university students were recruited to complete the Creative Self-Efficacy Scale and the Creative Mindset Scale. They also participated in two Alternative Uses Tasks and one Realistic Presented Problem, both before and after receiving pseudo negative feedback. The results indicated that individuals with high creative self-efficacy and a low developmental mindset generated more Realistic Presented Problem solutions after negative feedback, while those with high creative self-efficacy and a high developmental mindset generated more original Realistic Presented Problem solutions. These findings are discussed in relation to the self-enhancement and self-improvement motivations. Based on our results, the role of creative self-efficacy and a developmental mindset should be considered when delivering negative feedback. Our research also highlights ways to foster creativity in educational and workplace settings. Full article

Integrating sustainability into STEAM education is crucial for fostering environmental awareness among students. The Erasmus+ project Clean Environment–Clean School Climate with Creative Environmental Practices in School Education—Clean&Creative aims to develop environment-themed curriculum content that seamlessly integrates into ten different STEAM school disciplines. This initiative enhances multidisciplinary learning by connecting scientific knowledge with creative environmental practices, equipping students with the skills and mindset needed for sustainable problem solving. This paper presents the project’s key findings, highlighting innovative pedagogical approaches that merge sustainability with STEAM and humanities-based education. By incorporating hands-on, creative activities into school curricula, the project fosters active student engagement and a deeper understanding of environmental challenges. The results demonstrate how multidisciplinary strategies can bridge the gap between scientific principles and real-world sustainability issues, reinforcing the role of education in shaping eco-conscious citizens. Furthermore, the study discusses the challenges and opportunities in implementing these practices, providing insights into their long-term impact on students and educators. The findings contribute to the ongoing discourse on sustainability education, offering practical solutions for integrating environmental themes into diverse educational contexts. Ultimately, this research underscores the importance of creative, inter- and multidisciplinary methods in promoting sustainability within STEAM and humanistic education. Full article

In recent years, entrepreneurial learning in higher education institutions has been promoted and supported to help students become job creators rather than job seekers. The main purpose of entrepreneurial learning is to develop entrepreneurial competencies in terms of knowledge, skills, and attitudes to attain the entrepreneurial goal of new value creation. This value extends beyond only economic value and job creation; it can, therefore, also benefit students who do not become entrepreneurs but who choose to think entrepreneurially. However, an enduring problem is ensuring that the entrepreneurial learning process is interactive, effective, and meaningful to the students. Correspondingly, self-directed learning (SDL) can be used in higher education to enhance entrepreneurial learning. This paper discusses the analyses of the role and importance of self-directed learning in the process of entrepreneurial learning for students in higher education institutions, informed by an exploratory systematic literature review. The findings reveal that SDL can play an important role in enhancing entrepreneurial learning by initiating the learning process to develop students’ entrepreneurial skills, mindset, motivation, creativity, and innovation, which serve as competencies for success as entrepreneurial thinkers. Based on the findings, the author concludes that SDL plays an important role in enhancing entrepreneurial learning in higher education institutions. Adopting SDL as a key strategy for teaching and learning in higher education can improve the effectiveness of entrepreneurial learning and help develop students into entrepreneurial thinkers. The practical implications are that the use of SDL in entrepreneurial learning can develop a spirit of creativity, create value on several levels, and empower students to become job creators instead of job seekers as higher education institutions prepare them for life after graduation. Full article

Modern society, dominated by rationalism, has led to the hollowing out of life’s meaning. In response to this predicament, the question of how to transcend instrumental rationality and reconstruct an understanding of human conditions becomes crucial. Among pre-Qin thinkers, Zhuangzi offers the most profound exploration of life-related issues. His “death-life” thought embodies unique philosophical implications, revealing the fluidity, wholeness, and infinity of life. The word order of “death-life” underscores the idea of the transformation of things (wuhua, 物化), illuminating two practical pathways toward the infinite circulation of life. This understanding of life resonates with Henri Bergson’s life philosophy in their shared reverence for life’s infinite flow through intuition. However, they diverge in their views on time and subjectivity. Despite their differences, their ideas can complement each other. Integrating Bergson’s spirit of creative evolution with Zhuangzi’s carefree and detached mindset may help dissolve modern society’s obsession with utilitarian goals, allowing individuals to engage in active creation while simultaneously embracing the spontaneity and boundless possibilities of each present moment. This synthesis provides valuable insights for reconstructing life’s meaning in contemporary society. Full article

In the face of the growing challenges of the Anthropocene—marked by climate change, biodiversity loss, and increasing rates of disease and despair—this paper explores the need for holistic solutions that integrate cultural and spiritual transformation as essential dimensions of change. Recognizing that the interconnected challenges to planetary health stem from destructive socio-political agendas and unhealthy economic structures, we underscore the importance of worldviews and value systems as root causes of social and ecological injustices. Solutions require an understanding of the complex interdependence of systems, fostering mutualistic mindsets, and healing the ‘relationship crisis’ between humans and the natural world by cultivating a deeper level of consciousness. In response to these urgent needs, we describe Earthrise—a community of engaged contemplative practice led by the Nova Institute for Health in collaboration with the Planetary Health Alliance—dedicated to spiritual and cultural transformation in the face of today’s complex crises. Through intentional spiritual relationships—with ourselves, each other, and the natural world—our community emphasizes the power of narrative co-creation in building social cohesion and collective action for environmental stewardship. Our work is not solely contemplative, but also relational and integrative—embodying values through lived practice, community, and ecological engagement. Our activities focus on developing cultural capacities and self-awareness as essential foundations for fair and sustainable social transformation. By integrating diverse perspectives, including ancestral wisdom and Indigenous knowledge systems, we enrich worldviews and deepen our connection to the planet. The Earthrise community seeks to cultivate a sense of belonging, nurturing the meaningful relationships that foster compassion and care. Central to our approach is the use of creative emergence, leveraging the arts to inspire change and catalyze new paradigms. Through this exploration of interconnected themes, we contend that spiritual and cultural transformation is vital to advancing a thriving future, where human flourishing and planetary health are understood as inseparable and interconnected goals. Full article

Education for sustainability is one of the big challenges that higher education institutions (HEIs) face in the context of Society 5.0, which promotes human-centered design solutions. Therefore, solutions for collaboration between humans and technology in organizations are needed, as Industry 5.0 suggests. However, the concept of Engineering Education 5.0 promotes engineers who are able to solve global changes and are endowed with knowledge, skills, and a mindset for sustainability. This paper aims to highlight the transformative potential of international multidisciplinary consortia in HEIs, both for teaching and learning practices. Using a methodology that combines autoethnography and narrative analysis based on qualitative feedback received from participants, the paper presents lessons learned, good practices, and pilot co-teaching experiences within two Erasmus+ cooperation partnerships. This paper describes the educational process during joint learning sessions based on co-teaching and art-based training, showing educational practices for curricula development in engineering education. The findings show that cultivating teachers’ mindsets, skills, and pedagogical approaches can empower students to become active agents in fostering a more sustainable society and suggest that both ergonomics competencies and soft skills (e.g., self-awareness, creativity, collaboration) are crucial sustainability-oriented competencies, developed within international collaborative and enjoyable learning environments based on transformative learning experiences. Full article

Metacognition is vital for creativity; however, the specific contributions of its components (i.e., metacognition knowledge, metacognition experience, and metacognition monitoring and control) have received varying levels of attention, particularly due to the limited research on metacognitive experience. Additionally, the interactions among these components in influencing creative cognition remain unclear. We conducted two experiments to explore the influence of metacognitive experience on divergent thinking (e.g., alternative uses tasks, AUT) and the moderating role of creative mindsets—a core element of metacognitive knowledge—in this process. In Experiment 1, retrieval fluency, measured by the quantity of the ideas generated, was used to activate varying levels of metacognitive experience (fluency vs. disfluency) during the AUT. The findings showed that the originality of ideas generated under the disfluency condition was significantly higher than under the fluency condition, suggesting a positive effect of metacognitive disfluency experience on AUT. In Experiment 2, a multiple-choice task was used to prime individuals’ creative mindsets (entity vs. incremental). The results indicated that individuals with a creative growth mindset exhibited greater cognitive persistence under the disfluency condition, subsequently enhancing the originality of their ideas, indicating that creative mindsets moderate the effect of metacognitive disfluency experience on AUT performance via cognitive persistence. We integrated previous findings to describe the interactive impacts of creative mindsets, metacognitive experience, and metacognitive monitoring and control on divergent and convergent creative thinking processes within a metacognitive framework, providing a model to reveal the dynamic interplay of metacognitive processes in creative cognition. Practically, fostering individuals’ growth-oriented creative mindsets may represent a promising avenue for creativity development. Full article

Individual leadership styles, including entrepreneurial leadership (EL), vary and encompass creative urges, risk-taking, decision-making, and a proactive mindset. This research explores how entrepreneurial leadership (EL) can positively impact entrepreneurial success (ES). It also highlights the positive influence that EL has on ES and investigates how technology management processes (TMPs) can play a mediating role. For this purpose, data were collected from employees in the SMEs sector in KP, Pakistan. The results indicate that EL has a significant relationship with ES and TMPs. Findings also reveal that TMPs partially mediate the relationship between EL and ES. Based on the findings, policy-makers and regulators can use the results of this study to design policies that encourage entrepreneurial activity and foster an environment favorable to SMEs in KP. This study’s findings can help KP officials understand the elements that influence the success of SMEs and devise policies that encourage the growth of technology management systems and diverse teams in SMEs. Full article

This article features an interdisciplinary analysis of the aborted Korean apostolate plan (1566–1571) described by the Jesuit missionary Gaspar Vilela (c. 1525–1572) in a letter dated 3 November 1571. This analysis’s foundation rests on Jesuit assumptions regarding the conception of an imagined Korea, a construct that Vilela discerned upon with a confidence that emanated from his awareness of the Jesuit order’s political power. The notion of an imagined Korea arguably drew from a creativity implied by the missionary imagination, an idea evidenced in thinking processes of perspective, positive/negative consubstantiality, radical self-assessment, and reduction advocated by anthropologists increasingly willing to engage with theology. Although Vilela’s plan seems far removed from the relativism of today’s more empathetic missionaries, the letter nonetheless emphasized a somewhat flexible mindset that contravened the ideas of more dogmatic Jesuit Europhiles. The 1571 Vilela letter captured the aspirational rhetoric of the Jesuits who dreamed about Korea, but these missionaries had not yet faced the adversities that would ultimately extinguish the missionary order’s already fragile hopes for a Korean ministry. This article focuses on the second half of the 1571 Vilela letter, while a future article will focus on the first half of the same letter. Full article

In the pursuit of development and evaluation, entrepreneurship is the key to unlocking the shackles of poverty and unemployment. However, Pakistani students often catch themselves lacking the catalyst that ignites the entrepreneurial flame due to the absence of the essential knowledge, skills, and creative mindset, which can lead to significant challenges and a dim attitude toward entrepreneurial intentions. The harsh reality is that the rate of new business formation in Pakistan is only 1.5%. Therefore, the study aims to shed light on the impact of entrepreneurial inspiration, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial awareness on the intentions of Pakistani university students with the mediating effects of entrepreneurial education. Revealing the importance of entrepreneurial education in shaping the minds and desires of the students, seven hypotheses were developed based on social cognitive theory (SCT). A comprehensive survey was used to collect primary data from final-year business students, with a sample size of 865, from seven universities in the Punjab region of Pakistan that provide higher education in entrepreneurship and the data were analyzed in two stages, namely a model measurement and structural model Via Smart PLS 4. The findings clearly augment entrepreneurial inspiration, entrepreneurial skills, and entrepreneurial awareness, which can ignite the flames of entrepreneurship among Pakistani students. Moreover, entrepreneurial education plays a crucial role in mediating relationships and motivating students to choose entrepreneurship as a future occupation. However, the study is restricted to the Punjab region of Pakistan and focuses solely on final-year business students. This study serves as a guiding light of hope for academics, policymakers, and educational institutions to emphasize the need to revamp the business education landscape in Pakistan to foster entrepreneurial passion among our future leaders. Full article

The contemporary American university largely operates as an agent of domestication, tasked more with enforcing the social and economic order than with expanding the horizons of possibility. The dawn of the Anthropocene, however, demands that we reconceive of the humanities not as self-sufficient, hierarchical, or divided away from other modes of seeking knowledge but as core to what human being and responsibility ought to mean in the more-than-human world. The present essay makes a case for reworking—and rethinking—the American university along the lines of Mark C. Taylor’s prompt to reconceive of the academy as a multidisciplinary forum for the “comparative analysis of common problems”. I suggest that religious teachings—and religious traditions themselves—can offer models for the intertwining of the humanities (literature, poetry, philosophy, the expressive and applied arts), the social sciences (the study of governance, political thought, the study and formulation of law), and the natural sciences as well as mathematics and engineering. Further, I argue that when faced with radical and unprecedented changes in technological, social, economic, and environmental structures, we must, I believe, engage with these traditional texts in order to enrich and critique the liberal mindset that has neither the values nor the vocabulary to deal with the climate crisis. We must begin to sow new and expansive ways of thinking, and I am calling this work the “rewilding” of our universities. Parallel to the three Cs of rewilding as a conservation paradigm, I suggest the following three core principles for the rewilding of higher education: creativity, curriculum, and collaboration. Though I focus on the interface of religion, ecology, and the study of the environmental, social, and moral challenges of climate change, I suggest that these categories of activity should impact all domains of inquiry to which a university is home. Full article

Leadership behavior profoundly influences organizational culture, serving as a cornerstone for environments that foster safety, innovation, and employee satisfaction. This article utilizes research from the primary literature to demonstrate how leaders’ actions and underlying fears influence organizational dynamics and employee outcomes, highlighting the importance of respect, transparency, and trust. Studies have shown that leadership styles shape the work environment, driving innovation and performance. However, concerns over productivity, evaluation, and control can lead to poor communication, low transparency, reduced innovation, and diminished performance, creating a culture of mistrust and anxiety. Authoritarian control or neglect of employees’ needs exacerbates these issues, stifling creativity. The Pygmalion and Golem effects demonstrate how positive reinforcement enhances morale, productivity, and retention, while negative reinforcement is detrimental. Leaders operating under fears of failure or loss of control or political capital inadvertently create a culture of fear and increasingly severe feedback loops of reduced employee trust, satisfaction, and commitment. Addressing these fears fosters open communication, psychological safety, transparency, and mutual respect. Strategies for transforming leadership fears into positive change include promoting open communication, decentralizing decision-making, and implementing positive reinforcement mechanisms. Constructive feedback mechanisms encourage bidirectional communication and help mitigate the negative impacts of leadership fears. Leaders who address their fears can strengthen team trust, enhancing collaboration and engagement. Ultimately, managing leadership fears proactively catalyzes organizational learning and development, promoting a mindset where challenges are seen as opportunities for growth. This approach enhances adaptability and resilience while fostering continuous improvement. Addressing leadership fears and fostering a supportive culture is essential for sustainable productivity and success, serving as a starting point for exploring strategies that support employee performance and development, ultimately contributing to organizational success. Full article

Schools provide strategic resources for urban sustainability. An international, interdisciplinary research agenda documents the social and ecological benefits of living in green or re-naturalised schoolyards, a hybrid format of urban nature-based solutions. Focussing on low- and middle-income countries, where implementation lags, this paper addresses the challenges of replicating and scaling successful pilots. A better understanding of capacity building challenges is crucial, considering that schools face several concurrent challenges, including historical preservation of heritage buildings, universal access provision, and infrastructure failure in ageing facilities. This study presents primary evidence from action research to build and promote living schoolyards in Argentina, structured as a comparative case study of attempts to co-develop yards with two schools in Buenos Aires. One was an older school with historical preservation status; the other was a more modern, larger school with relative heritage value. Findings show contrastive outcomes. Our programme advanced only in the former. Historical preservation regulations posed relatively manageable contingencies, whereas insurmountable obstacles came from poor general maintenance and governmental risk aversion. Concluding remarks make suggestions on how to co-design projects with communities to synergise heritage schemes, creatively fix infrastructure deficits, and stir a mindset shift for decision-makers to understand and value urban re-greening. Full article

Innovation models are key to fostering technology-focused entrepreneurship in higher education institutions (HEIs). These models create dynamic environments that encourage collaboration, creativity, and problem-solving skills among students and faculty. HEIs face several challenges in fostering entrepreneurship, including allocating sufficient financial and human resources, integrating entrepreneurship education across disciplines, and managing intellectual property. Overcoming these challenges requires HEIs to cultivate an entrepreneurial culture and establish strong partnerships with industry stakeholders. To achieve these goals, HEIs must adopt successful innovation models proven to work. This article presents an international case study highlighting such models and the factors contributing to their success. This study explores the implementation and impact of innovation models, specifically IDEATION and DEETECHTIVE, within HEIs to foster technology-focused entrepreneurship. By implementing numerous actions focusing on online education integration and the Quintuple Helix Innovation Model, these models support shifting engineering students’ mindsets toward entrepreneurship. This research highlights the importance of academia–industry collaboration, international partnerships, and the integration of entrepreneurship education in technology-focused disciplines. This study presents two models. The first, IDEATION, focuses on open innovation and sharing economy aspects. This model underwent rigorous testing and refinement, evolving into the second model, DEETECHTIVE, which is more comprehensive and deep tech-focused. These models have been validated as effective frameworks for fostering entrepreneurship and innovation within HEIs. This study’s findings underscore the potential of these models to enhance innovation capacity, foster an entrepreneurial culture, and create ecosystems rich in creativity and advancement. Practical implications include the establishment of open innovation-oriented structures and mechanisms, the development of specialized curriculum components, and the creation of enhanced collaboration platforms. Full article