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The very soul of cultural and arts entrepreneurship (CAE) is aesthetic. However, what is the importance of being aesthetic in CAE? An understanding of aesthetics substantially improves both our comprehension of CAE and our capacity to theorise about entrepreneurship and creative industries. Furthermore, when seeking to understand CAE, the authors expand their knowledge about aesthetics, an ordinary but complex and neglected kind of knowledge. The authors mobilise three perspectives in organisational aesthetics theory (sensible knowing, connection, and judgements) to develop and propose initial ways to connect aesthetics to CAE. These perspectives help to explore and explain the vital importance of aesthetics in CAE and its innovation process. Aesthetics is a source of innovation in CAE, and the authors propose to perceive entrepreneurial innovations as aesthetic learning, persuasion, and flow.

The study applies a multimodal approach to position aesthetic innovation, i.e., the strategic use of aesthetic design attributes, such as color and shape, as an institutionalized aspect of competition, rather than as a firm-specific differentiation strategy, in settings that favor the symbolic meanings of products. Empirically, the study offers a detailed case study of the personal computer (PC) industry to examine the institutionalization of aesthetic innovation as a dimension of competition across industrial firms. The study examines the color and shape of PCs over the 1992–2003 period and situates changes to these attributes in the competitive conditions that characterized the industry, paying particular attention to the introduction of the Apple iMac in 1998. Furthermore, it examines the discursive manifestations of aesthetic innovation by content analysis of reviews of PCs and interviews with industry executives. Findings demonstrate that, in a period coinciding with a decline in demand for PCs and an overall mature market as well as with the introduction of the iMac, the majority of firms engaged in aesthetic innovation and used a greater number of aesthetic words in describing their PCs.

This paper highlights that the strategic use of design, a competitive pattern typically associated with creative industries, those creating and trading meanings, also characterizes industries that produce functional or utilitarian goods not typically considered creative. The paper explores the origins of this phenomenon in the context of three industry settings: cars, speciality coffee and personal computers. The analysis theorizes three distinct strategic paths that explain how design may become an institutionalized aspect of competition in industries that are not creative. We explain how firms link their products to the identities of their users, how design is linked to stakeholders' emotions and visceral reactions to products and how intermediaries are relevant to enhancing attention to design. Illuminating these strategic paths allows harnessing some of the well-established understandings about competition in creative industries towards understanding competition in noncreative industries.

The purpose of this paper is to show the mechanism of aesthetic experiences of work in a research and innovation context – an R&D laboratory of a multinational communications and information technology company. Analysing memorable projects of this laboratory through the lenses of aesthetics is a useful way to understand organizational and innovation culture and the quality of life of researchers and innovators.

An exploratory study focusing on memorable projects of 31 researchers who worked on 70 projects during four years was conducted. The data analysis is based on the grounded theory.

The study reveals six key dimensions that describe the dimensions of R&D researchers’ aesthetic experiences: perceptive, emotional, intellectual, communicative, collective and organizational. These dimensions are closely related and support an innovation culture in an R&D environment.

The aesthetic dimensions have to be correlated to innovation performance indicators to better understand which aspects are the most relevant for innovation.

The paper proposes first examples of implications for the industry to foster an innovation culture through aesthetic experiences.

No study has been done on aesthetic experiences in an R&D environment.

The purpose of this paper is to provide empirical evidence of open innovation mechanism specific to aesthetic innovation. Prior research have drawn its research attention to technological innovation and focussed on the biopharmaceutical and technological sectors as the main research contexts. Thus, to gain a wider picture of the structural characteristics of innovation ecosystem, this paper aims to complement the existing technological-centred literature and provides understanding of aesthetic innovation by focussing on exploring the role of actors and intermediaries in either facilitating or inhibiting innovation in the creative sector.

This is an exploratory study and the qualitative method was employed. With aim to explore aesthetic innovation in the creative sector, this research grounded its context in the UK designer fashion sector, which is part of the creative industries. Data were collected through a series of semi-structured interviews with respondents being purposely selected so as to ensure representativeness. A wider range of participants within the designer fashion sector was covered. Such multiple-sourced data collection approach allowed this research to triangulate data so that research trustworthiness was enhanced.

The result suggests the role of a broker in beyond traditionally facilitating knowledge exchange. This paper provides empirical evidence regarding the critical role of a broker in shaping the open innovation mechanism when it comes to aesthetic innovation. A broker in fact occupies a strategic position that allows it to negotiate relationships among the connected organisations and thus to govern the interaction mechanism of the innovation ecosystem as a whole. Given the empowered broker in such setting, the relationship between innovation creators and innovation seekers is controlled by a broker, which leads to risk that an innovation creator may not fully appropriate the value that it creates.

The main limitation of this study is its specific context, that is, the UK designer fashion industry. Such focus limits the scope of generalisation particularly its application to the entire creative sector. Thus, it is suggested that future research may consider to explore other creative industries so that the understanding of the open innovation mechanism from a structural perspective applied to aesthetic innovation can be enhanced.

This paper outlines the structural mechanism of open innovation applied to aesthetic innovation. The result contributes to the literature by complementing the findings derived from technology-centred research. Also, empirical evidence of this study is particularly of value to policy makers in the aspect of creative sector development. The suggested implications provide strategies of innovation ecosystem that could benefit individual actors involved in this open innovation setting and ensure prosper of the sector as a whole.

The purpose of this paper is to examine product failures in the consumer technology products industry to explain why some firms experience more aesthetic-related failures than others.

The study uses a unique data set of failed high technology consumer products identified by expert product reviewers of 75 online magazines during 2000-2010. The variables are constructed using two coders as well as using an automated content analysis process based on the information provided in the online product reviews. The study tests a hypothesis using multilevel logistic regression techniques on a sample of 606 product reviews of 323 products associated with 171 firms.

The study demonstrates that older firms are much more susceptible than younger firms to suffer from aesthetic-related product failures when they pursue product innovations that are new for them. Likewise, older firms suffer fewer aesthetics-related product failures than younger firms when they exploit products that well known to them.

The study is highly novel in its research setting and empirical approach, and brings valuable insights for researchers and managers regarding challenges associated with aesthetic innovations for young and old firms.

The purpose of this study aims to understand if there are any differences in the influence of aesthetic experience and creative self-efficacy on innovative behaviors of Thai students and Chinese international students and whether creative self-efficacy has a mediating effect between aesthetic experience and innovative behavior.

Three Thai universities with Chinese international students were selected through purposive sampling. There were 329 valid responses, consisting of responses from 170 Thai students and 159 Chinese students. The data were analyzed by employing multigroup structural equation modeling.

The analysis of the differences between the students of the two countries shows that the influence of aesthetic experience on creative self-efficacy, as well as the creative self-efficacy on innovative behavior of Chinese international students, is greater than that of Thai students, while the influence of aesthetic experience on innovative behavior of Thai students is greater than that of Chinese international students.

There are some differences between Thai and Chinese students, which could be attributed to their differing environments, cultures and prior learning experiences.

This study aims to explore and clarify the role of national traditional festival tourism in cultivating national identity (NI) and confirm its construction model.

Based on social identity theory and complexity theory, a complex nurturing framework for visitors’ NI is developed. The paper with 479 samples used fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to analyse NI from the holistic perspective of “cultural inheritance” (festival authenticity [FA], historical re-enactment [HR] and cultural experience [CE]) and “inherited innovation” (event design innovation [EDI], cultural innovation [CUI], aesthetic innovation [AI] and creative innovation [CRI]).

The findings indicated three driving modes of forming NI: cultural inheritance-led, inherited innovation-led and the dual coordination of cultural inheritance and inherited innovation. FA, HR, CE, AI and CRI are core incentives, whereas event design and CUI are AI.

The findings provide directions for strengthening visitors’ national emotion, which has significant value for the development of traditional festival tourism.

The study offers a new perspective for the cultivation of NI in the tourism context and provides theoretical guidance for the coordinated development of cultural inheritance and inherited innovation in national traditional festival tourism destinations.

本研究旨在探索和厘清全国性传统节日旅游在培养国家认同中的作用, 并确定国家认同的建构模型。

基于479份有效问卷, 研究基于社会认同理论和复杂性理论和模糊集定性比较分析(fsQCA), 从“文化沿袭”（节日真实性、历史重演、文化体验）和“传承创新”（活动设计创新、文化创新、审美创新和创意创新）的整体视角构建了国家认同的复杂培育框架。

国家认同培育涵盖三种驱动模式:文化沿袭主导、传承创新主导、文化沿袭与传承创新的双重协调。其中, 节日真实性、历史重演、文化体验、审美创新和创意创新是核心激励因素, 而活动设计创新和文化创新是辅助条件。

研究结论为增强参与者的国家情感提供方向, 对传统节日旅游发展具有重要价值。

本研究为旅游语境下国家认同的培养提供了新的视角, 为全国性传统节日旅游目的地文化沿袭与传承创新的协调发展提供理论指导

El objetivo de este estudio es explorar y clarificar el papel del turismo de fiestas tradicionales nacionales en la formación de la identidad nacional (IN), y confirmar su modelo de construcción.

Sobre la base de la teoría de la identidad social y la teoría de la complejidad, se desarrolla un complejo marco de fomento de la IN de los visitantes. El artículo, con 479 muestras, utilizó el análisis cualitativo comparativo de conjuntos difusos (fsQCA) para analizar la IN desde la perspectiva holística de la “herencia cultural” (autenticidad del festival, recreación histórica, experiencia cultural) y la “innovación heredada” (innovación en el diseño del evento, innovación cultural, innovación estética e innovación creativa).

Los resultados indican que existen tres modos de formación de la IN: el propiciado por la herencia cultural, el guiado por la innovación heredada y la doble coordinación de la herencia cultural y la innovación heredada. La autenticidad del festival, la recreación histórica, la experiencia cultural, la innovación estética y la innovación creativa son los principales motivadores, mientras que el diseño del evento y la innovación cultural desempeñan un papel secundario.

Las conclusiones proporcionan orientaciones para reforzar el sentimiento nacional de los visitantes, lo que tiene un gran valor para el desarrollo turístico de las fiestas tradicionales.

El estudio ofrece una nueva perspectiva sobre el cultivo de la IN en el contexto turístico, y ofrece orientación teórica para el desarrollo coordinado de la herencia cultural y la innovación heredada en los destinos turísticos de fiestas tradicionales nacionales.

The purpose of this paper is to define the design orientation construct, proposing a theoretical framework for its analysis and a validated tool for its measurement.

The process of scale development follows the recommendations of DeVellis (1991). After qualitative research with experts, quantitative research was performed on a sample of 209 SMEs in the furniture and lighting sectors. The results, based on the use of the confirmatory factor analysis technique, yielded a measurement scale with solid psychometric properties, thus confirming its reliability and validity.

The resulting scale comprised 19 items grouped into seven dimensions: awareness of the benefits of design, design sensibility, basic design skills, specialized design skills, involving others, design organization and innovation skills.

The instrument can be used to quantify the degree of design orientation in a company, thus enabling cross-sectional and longitudinal diagnoses.

By operationalizing the design orientation construct, this scale serves as a starting point for future developments in the field of business design and design management.