Abstract
In this chapter we reflect on a particular way of studying immensely high complexity, such as creativity, by investigating extraordinary achievers. The basis of our reflections are two empirical studies, one conducted in the area of haute cuisine, through interviewing top chefs, and the second conducted in the area of science, thorough interviewing Nobel Laureates. We explore why we feel that studying such extraordinary individuals can be more fruitful for better understanding creativity than trying to achieve an artificially manufactured sample that provides insights about the creative potential of the average individual. We outline the problems we see with the notion of representative samples from both conceptual as well as feasibility perspectives and offer an argument for studying the extraordinary instead.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT: We have presented various aspects of our thinking about this topic as a series of developmental papers (Dörfler & Stierand, 2009; Stierand & Dörfler, 2011, 2012a, 2013) in the Research Methodology Special Interest Group (RM SIG) of the British Academy of Management (BAM) conference. We would like to thank members of the RM SIG as over the years they helped us clarify our thinking with their constructive criticism, comments and most of all questions for which we did not have satisfactory answers.
- 2.
An additional difficulty here is that the Nobel Prize nominations are confidential for 50 years following the nominations. Furthermore, we can see that both in the case of Michelin stars as well as in the case of the Nobel Prize, the award will usually have significant delay compared to achieving the extraordinary level, so it could be expected that often there would be no recognisable difference between the comparison groups.
References
Bacon, S. F. (1620/2005). Novum organum: True directions concerning the interpretation of nature (e-book Ed.). Whitefish, MT: Kessinger Publishing.
Calder, B. J., Phillips, L. W., & Tybout, A. M. (1982). The concept of external validity. The Journal of Consumer Research, 9(3), 240–244. https://doi.org/10.1086/208920.
Cousins, J., O’Gorman, K., & Stierand, M. (2010). Molecular gastronomy: Cuisine innovation or modern day alchemy? International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 22(3), 399–415. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111011035972.
Csíkszentmihályi, M. (1997). Creativity: Flow and the psychology of discovery and invention. New York: HarperCollins.
Csíkszentmihályi, M. (2002). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience (2nd ed.). London: Rider.
Denzin, N. K., & Lincoln, Y. S. (2000). Handbook of qualitative research (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications.
Dörfler, V., & Ackermann, F. (2012). Understanding intuition: The case for two forms of intuition. Management Learning, 43(5), 545–564. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507611434686.
Dörfler, V., & Eden, C. (2014a). Research on intuition using intuition. In M. Sinclair (Ed.), Handbook of research methods on intuition (pp. 264–276). Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing.
Dörfler, V., & Eden, C. (2014b). Understanding ‘expert’ scientists: Implications for management and organization research. Paper presented at the AoM 2014: 74th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Philadelphia, PA. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMBPP.2014.10732abstract
Dörfler, V., & Eden, C. (2017). Becoming a Nobel Laureate: Patterns of a journey to the highest level of expertise. Paper presented at the AoM 2017: 77th Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management, Atlanta, GA. http://www.researchgate.net/publication/319373590
Dörfler, V., & Stierand, M. (2009). Investigating the extraordinary. Paper presented at the BAM 2009: 23rd Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, Brighton.
Eisenhardt, K. M. (1989). Building theories from case study research. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 532–550. https://doi.org/10.2307/258557.
Eszterházy, P. (2006). Utazás a tizenhatos mélyére. Budapest, Hungary: Magvető.
Gardner, H. (1993). Creating minds: An anatomy of creativity seen through the lives of Freud, Einstein, Picasso, Stravinsky, Eliot, Graham, and Gandhi. New York: Basic Books.
Gardner, H. (1995). Leading minds: An anatomy of leadership. London: Harper Collins Publishers.
Gardner, H. (1997). Extraordinary minds: Portraits of exceptional individuals and an examination of our extraordinariness. London: Phoenix.
Gibbert, M. (2006). Generalizing about uniqueness: An essay on an apparent paradox in the resource-based view. Journal of Management Inquiry, 15(2), 124–134. https://doi.org/10.1177/1056492606287793.
Gibbert, M., Ruigrok, W., & Wicki, B. (2008). What passes as a rigorous case study? Strategic Management Journal, 29(13), 1465–1474. https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.722.
Gladwell, M. (2008). Outliers – The story of success. New York: Little, Brown and Company.
Kahneman, D., & Tversky, A. (1972). Subjective probability: A judgment of representativeness. Cognitive Psychology, 3(3), 430–454. https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-0285(72)90016-3.
Lebuda, I. (2014). Big C research–The big challenge? Reflections from research into eminent creativity in the light of the investment theory of creativity. Creativity: Theories-Research-Application, 1(1), 33–45. https://doi.org/10.15290/ctra.2014.01.01.03.
March, J. G., Sproull, L. S., & Tamuz, M. (1991). Learning from samples of one or fewer. Organization Science, 2(1), 1–13. https://doi.org/10.1287/orsc.2.1.1.
Maslow, A. H. (1966/2002). The psychology of science: A reconnaissance. Chapel Hill, NC: Maurice Bassett Publishing.
Maslow, A. H. (1968). Toward a psychology of being (2nd ed.). New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold.
Maslow, A. H. (1970/1994). Religions, values, and peak-experiences. New York: Penguin.
Maslow, A. H. (1971/1993). The farther reaches of human nature. London: Penguin Compass.
McGrath, J. E., & Brinberg, D. (1983). External validity and the research process: A comment on the Calder/Lynch dialogue. Journal of Consumer Research, 10(1), 115–124. https://doi.org/10.1086/208951.
Mill, J. S. (1861). Utilitarianism. In G. Williams (Ed.), Utilitarianism, on liberty, considerations on representative government, remarks on Bentham’s philosophy (pp. 1–67). London: Everyman.
Polányi, M. (1962a/2002). Personal knowledge: Towards a post-critical philosophy. London: Routledge.
Polányi, M. (1962b). Tacit knowing: Its bearing on some problems of philosophy. Reviews of Modern Physics, 34(4), 601–616.
Polányi, M. (1966/1983). The tacit dimension. Gloucester, MA: Peter Smith.
Scandura, T. A., & Williams, E. A. (2000). Research methodology in management: Current practices, trends, and implications for future research. Academy of Management Journal, 43(6), 1248–1264. https://doi.org/10.2307/1556348.
Simonton, D. K. (1999). Significant samples: The psychological study of eminent individuals. Psychological Methods, 4(4), 425–451. https://doi.org/10.1037/1082-989X.4.4.425.
Simonton, D. K. (2014). Significant samples – Not significance tests! The often overlooked solution to the replication problem. Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, 8(1), 11–12. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0035849.
Stierand, M. (2015). Developing creativity in practice: Explorations with World-Renowned Chefs. Management Learning, 46(5), 598–617. https://doi.org/10.1177/1350507614560302.
Stierand, M., & Dörfler, V. (2011). Revising the notion of sample representativeness. Paper presented at the BAM 2011: 25th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, Birmingham, UK.
Stierand, M., & Dörfler, V. (2012a). Iterative learning: A way of achieving generalizability in idiographic research? Paper presented at the BAM 2012: 26th Annual Meeting of the British Academy of Management, Cardiff, UK.
Stierand, M., & Dörfler, V. (2012b). Reflecting on a phenomenological study of creativity and innovation in haute cuisine. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 24(6), 946–957. https://doi.org/10.1108/09596111211247254.
Stierand, M., & Dörfler, V. (2013). Idiographic explanatory phenomenology: A contextualist approach to elucidating experiences. Paper presented at the BAM 2013: 27th Annual Conference of the British Academy of Management, Aintree Racecourse, Liverpool, UK. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268925834
Stierand, M., & Dörfler, V. (2016). The role of intuition in the creative process of expert chefs. Journal of Creative Behavior, 50(3), 178–185. https://doi.org/10.1002/jocb.100.
Stierand, M., Dörfler, V., & MacBryde, J. (2014). Creativity and innovation in haute cuisine: Towards a systemic model. Creativity and Innovation Management, 23(1), 15–28. https://doi.org/10.1111/caim.12050.
Stierand, M., & Lynch, P. (2008). The art of creating culinary innovations. Tourism and Hospitality Research, 8(4), 337–350. https://doi.org/10.1057/thr.2008.28.
Taleb, N. N. (2008). The black swan: The impact of the highly improbable. London: Penguin Books.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1971). Belief in the law of small numbers. Psychological Bulletin, 76(2), 105–110.
Wacker, J. G. (1998). A definition of theory: Research guidelines for different theory-building research methods in operations management. Journal of Operations Management, 16(4), 361–385. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0272-6963(98)00019-9.
Weick, K. E. (1989). Theory construction as disciplined imagination. Academy of Management Review, 14(4), 516–531. https://doi.org/10.5465/AMR.1989.4308376.
Weick, K. E. (1995). What theory is not, theorizing is. Administrative Science Quarterly, 40(3), 385–390. https://doi.org/10.2307/2393789.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2019 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Dörfler, V., Stierand, M. (2019). Extraordinary: Reflections on Sample Representativeness. In: Lebuda, I., Glăveanu, V.P. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Social Creativity Research. Palgrave Studies in Creativity and Culture. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95498-1_36
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-95498-1_36
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-95497-4
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-95498-1
eBook Packages: Behavioral Science and PsychologyBehavioral Science and Psychology (R0)