This chapter explores the importance of acknowledging the creativity and creative work of individuals in creative industries. This phenomenon is investigated from three different perspectives: social-psychological, social and flow of experience, and third drive. The third drive, as a part of a new operating system, is seen as the most important factor in the work of creative individuals. This study examines four empirical cases from the computer games industry from three different geographical regions: Finland, the UK, and Poland. In addition, the authors analyse a stand-up comedian from the United States. Based on these cases, this study concludes that intrinsic drive and the need to be creative are the critical motivations of creative individuals when a new product is developed or a new creative company is founded. Additionally, this study reveals that acknowledgment for creative work is the reason why creative individuals do what they do. This study examines the paradox between creative/artistic work and business interests by analysing creative processes and the social needs of creative individuals. The authors explain how this happens through social media and express how academics may find creative spaces inspiring when teaching the principles of creative industries.
TopIntroduction
The theories of motivation start with the assumption that there are two kinds of concepts that influence human creative behaviour: intrinsic and extrinsic motivation (Amabile & Pillemer, 2012). Previous research has argued that the role of social media serves as a mediator for how an individual’s need can be used to create new products and companies (Correa, Hinsley, & de Zuniga, 2010; Kietzmann, Hermkens, McCarthy, & Silvestre, 2011). During the process of generating new products and companies through social media avenues, the intrinsic motivation, we argue, refers to motivators that please the person because of the interesting elements of the work task. In contrast, the extrinsic motivation is explained as a set of motivators that satisfy certain requirements outside of the nature of the work (e.g. money and rewards that positively influence the achievement of the task). Work in the twenty-first century happens efficiently through social media, such as Facebook, LinkedIn or Second Life, to name a few (Steinbock, 2005).
From the perspective of motivation, one of the newest and most interesting approaches was introduced by Pink (2009). His fundamental concept of the Motivation 3.0 operating system explained the reasons why creative individuals develop new products and companies. In Pink’s approach, the third drive proves we are no longer extrinsically motivated “single-minded robots” but, instead, are intrinsically motivated individuals enjoying non-routine work. The third drive of Motivation 3.0, which is the core of the concept, is an innate need to learn and create new ideas or products and to be self-directed (Pink, 2009). In this paper, we refer to that kind of motivation as the intrinsic drive and need to be creative. We explain the reasons why the new product or company emerges as a result of that drive in creative individuals. We give examples of creative companies where social media is used efficiently. However, this paper does not so much focus on the role of social media as a way to identify other social media opportunities because that aspect has already been well studied (Tapscott & Williams, 2006; Mangold & Faulds, 2009; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). In contrast, we concentrate on the elements of the creative process from the social perspective. This emphasis explains how creative products and companies emerge through social media.
Pink’s (2009) ideas are similar to what Czikszentmihalyi (1999) wrote about flow experience. Flow experience is a state of mind in which a person is so enthusiastic about doing a certain task that everything else seems to disappear. The current research on creative industries has used the same concept. For example, Eikhof and Haunschild (2007) argued there is a paradox between artistic work and business interests in creative industries (see also Tapscott & Williams, 2006). To meet the challenge of that paradox, it is crucial to understand intrinsic motivation to “recruit and motivate individuals who seem to possess the insight and intuitive understanding of how creative resources can be discovered and nourished” (Lampel, Lant, & Shamsie, 2000, p. 265). This paper builds on the idea of intrinsic motivation as a starting point for creative work. More precisely, this study stretches the current ideas of creativity and intrinsic drive provided by Amabile (1996), Amabile and Pillemer (2012), Czikszentmihalyi (1999) and Pink (2009). It further illustrates a dearth in the research providing a clear explanation of intrinsic motivation in the context of creative industries. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate the critical social processes required to release the potential of the third drive in twenty-first-century creative work. More precisely, this study attempts to answer the following research question: How do intrinsic drive and the need to be creative influence the acknowledgement of creativity in the context of creating a new product or company? We show how closely related are social media interactions between the customers and the crucial players in creative companies and creative processes at the general level. In this way, the paper explains what and how we are able to learn and teach the talents involved in building creative processes. In this paper, we empirically stretch the current theories of creativity and motivation. In doing so, we show what kinds of drives are behind creative work.