Evaluating Groupware for Creative Group Processes – The Case Study of CreativeFlow

The creative potential of teams plays a crucial role in generating the competitive advantage of organizations. We introduce an architecture supporting creative group processes in the context of business processes. Based on the theoretical concept of Pockets of Creativity (Seidel et al. 2010), the architecture aims to balance freedom for creative group work and constraints set by the processes in its environment. The architecture is implemented in the prototype CreativeFlow, integrating a groupware component and a workflow component. The prototype is evaluated in a case study in a TV production company. Free participation in group tasks and support for the structuring of ideas were deemed appropriate for the support of creative group processes. Process structure is mainly imposed by project deadlines that require user notification, also outside the workflow component. Process orientation is a promising approach to increase the efficiency of the creative value creation

Toward Process Modeling in Creative Domains

Process modeling has emerged as a widely accepted approach in order to reduce organizational complexity in organizations. Process models are used for different purposes, including process analysis and redesign, risk management, and the implementation of software systems. However, the majority of existent approaches is restricted to processes that are wellstructured and predictable. Highly creative environments, such as the film industry or R&D departments, however, are characterized by high levels of flexibility. As existent approaches do not provide ample means to model such processes, this paper discusses the capabilities that a conceptual process modeling grammar for processes in creative environments must provide. Furthermore, we suggest an approach to process analysis that aims at the identification and specification of creativity in business processes. The study belongs to the design science paradigm; the discussion is grounded in a theory that explains the nature of processes that rely on creativity

Serendipitous Exploration of Large-scale Product Catalogs

Abstract-Online shopping has developed to a stage where catalogs have become very large and diverse. Thus, it is a challenge to present relevant items to potential customers within a very few interactions. This is even more so when users have no defined shopping objectives but operate in an opportunistic mindset. This problem is often tackled by recommender systems. However, these systems rely on consistent user interaction patterns to predict items of interest. In contrast, we propose to adapt the classical information retrieval (IR) paradigm for the purpose of accessing catalog items in a context of un-predictable user interaction. Accordingly, we present a novel information access strategy based on the notion of interest rather than relevance. We detail the design of a scalable browsing system including learning capabilities joint with a limited-memory model. Our approach enables locating interesting items within a few steps while not requiring good quality descriptions. Our system allows customer to seamlessly change browsing objectives without having to start explicitly a new session. An evaluation of our approach based on both artificial and real-life datasets demonstrates its efficiency in learning and adaptation. I. MOTIVATION The emergence of online shopping has offered new opportunities to propose services and products to customers. Currently, many online shops are not anymore restricted to a certain category of products. For example Amazon, initially focused on cultural and entertainment media (books, music, and video), is now offering products as diverse as home appliances or jewelry. Even more crucial, we usually find thousands of items within a product category, e.g. 38 million books and 3,5 million jewelry items on Amazon. Both the breadth of product lines and the depth within a product line not only boost the volume of the catalogs but also make it difficult for the customer to find products of interest without an accurate search protocol. Presenting relevant products to potential customers is the goal of recommender systems. Independent of their type (collaborative filtering systems, content-based recommender, etc), recommender systems usually operate on a user profile gained from previous shopping sessions. For this reason, recommender systems suffer from the cold-start problem, when new users and/or new products appear In contrast to the above, our approach does not require the definition of a user profile nor it imposes specific search sessions with pre-defined objectives. In other words, we present an efficient product access strategy enabling intuitive browsing by estimating the user's intention from his/her input to the system and displaying items that are considered as most interesting to him/her (and thus likely to be purchased). Our new information access strategy is based on the notion of current interest rather than on the notion of relevance classically used in Information Retrieval (O1) We accommodate serendipity. We assume no pre-defined (fixed) objective of the user's chain of actions; (O2) The system matches classic (simple) interaction models; (O3) The system is scalable in terms of the volume of the product catalog. Our approach results in an interactive navigation system, which let the user operate naturally over the product catalog while swiftly reacting to changes in the browsing objectives. The major difference with earlier approaches is a rapidly adapting system, that copes with radical changes, and is scalable to operate over realistic-scale product catalogs. The remainder of the paper is structured as follows: in section II, we discuss relevant approaches for information characterisation and content access strategies in large repositories. In section III, we present our interaction model, which describes the type of interaction that is expected from the user and what information is carried over with this interaction. We formalise our navigation model, anticipating functional issues in section IV. In particular, we review its properties ensuring scalability and compatibility with other models. In section V, we propose a comprehensive assessment of the performance of our model in an adaptive browsing scenario. At every browsing step, the system aims at displaying the most useful items to the user with respect to past interaction. Although our study includes an inherent temporal dimension, which makes the evaluation context different from that of classical searc

BPM in Creative Industries: An Action-Research in the Fashion Industry

Despite the growing interest in Business Process Management (BPM), its adoption involves challenges related to the complexity of its methods and tools, and to the applicability in industries that have creativity and flexibility as their main pillars. The Fashion Industry, which are part of the Creative Industries, begins to look for management alternatives to give sustainability to its businesses in face of the acceleration of the transformations in its competitive environment. The present study reports an action-research conducted in the context of the adoption of BPM in a fashion company, evaluating the practical consequences generated for the organization. The results obtained suggest that BPM can facilitate the integration and reconciliation of creativity management and business management, while enabling gains in efficiency and competitiveness. A pesar del creciente interés en Business Process Management (BPM), su adopción implica desafíos relacionados con la complejidad de sus métodos y herramientas, y con la aplicabilidad en industrias que tienen la creatividad y la flexibilidad como pilares principales. La Industria de la Moda, insertada en las Industrias Creativas, comienza a buscar alternativas de gestión para dar sostenibilidad a sus negocios ante la aceleración de las transformaciones en su entorno competitivo. El presente estudio reporta una investigación-acción realizada en el contexto de la adopción de BPM en una empresa de moda, evaluando las consecuencias prácticas que genera para la empresa. Los resultados obtenidos sugieren que Business Process Management puede facilitar la integración y conciliación de la gestión de la creatividad y la gestión empresarial, al tiempo que permite ganancias en eficiencia y competitividad. Apesar do crescente interesse na Gestão de Processos de Negócio (BPM), sua adoção envolve desafios relacionados à complexidade de seus métodos e ferramentas, e à aplicabilidade em indústrias que têm na criatividade e na flexibilidade os seus principais pilares. A Indústria da Moda, inserida nas Indústrias Criativas, começa a buscar alternativas de gestão para dar sustentabilidade aos seus negócios face à aceleração das transformações no seu ambiente competitivo. O presente estudo relata uma pesquisa-ação conduzida no contexto de adoção do BPM em uma empresa de moda, avaliando as conseqüências práticas geradas para a empresa. Os resultados obtidos sugerem que Gestão de Processos de Negócio pode facilitar a integração e conciliação do gerenciamento da criatividade e da gestão de negócios, ao mesmo tempo em possibilita ganhos em eficiência e em competitividade

A conceptual framework for information retrieval to support creativity in business processes

Creativity as the prerequisite for innovation is a core competitive factor in contemporary organizations. When creativity happens this involves creative persons who produce creative products in a process that cannot be fully anticipated and predescribed. We introduce the concept of pockets of creativity for those sections of a business process where creativity occurs. These sections are characterized by a high demand for flexibility and knowledge of the involved creative persons. In pockets of creativity previous knowledge is retrieved, transformed and combined into new procedures or artifacts – in short – innovations. Naturally, this raises the question of how pockets of creativity can be supported by information technology. Information retrieval is part of an organizations knowledge processes concerned with the representation, storage, organization, searching and finding of organizational knowledge. Informed by case studies we have conducted with organizations from the Creative Industries and drawing from existing theory, in this paper we introduce a conceptual framework for information retrieval that enables creative persons to access relevant information through a multi-perspective, hierarchical view. Such an approach both appropriately considers different ways of creative thinking and provides stimuli to a person's cognitive network fostering her creativity and thus the development of truly innovative products