http://repub.eur.nl/res/aut/14407/ List of Publications en http://repub.eur.nl/static-eur/img/logo.png http://repub.eur.nl http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/39946/ 2011-09-01T00:00:00Z It is widely acknowledged that supply chain ‘glitches’ may have detrimental effects on company performance and shareholder wealth. However, much less is known about the decision makers themselves, the way they manage crises, and whether their actions are predictable. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/31970/ 2011-01-01T00:00:00Z In creative settings, exposure to creative exemplar products may invite imitation and as such influence creative performance. In understanding creativity, it, therefore, is important to be able to predict imitation of creative exemplar products. Regulatory focus theory can do so, and leads to predictions that deviate from the existing body of knowledge concerning regulatory focus and creativity in the absence of exemplar products. In this study, we proposed that high creative exemplar quality elicits more imitation-and thus lowered creativity-for promotion-focused individuals, whereas creative exemplar quality does not affect the creative process for prevention-focused individuals. To enable a relatively objective measurement of creativity and imitation, these predictions were tested in a laboratory experiment. Results supported predictions, indicating that knowledge about how strongly people engage in imitation in the face of a creative exemplar product leads to more adequate predictions how creative people really are. http://repub.eur.nl/res/pub/11555/ 2008-03-06T00:00:00Z Common wisdom has it that ‘apes ape’ and what ‘monkey see, monkey do’. Human beings, though, by far and beyond outperform apes in their capacity for imitation. Copying the behavior of others is such a central capacity in mankind that imitation of the creative products and/or ideas of others also should be an essential ingredient in creative task performance. Much biographical evidence on creative professionals in conjunction with research on imitation in management literature highlights the role of imitation in the creative process. However, previous studies hardly concentrated on behavioral determinants and/or motivational underpinnings of imitation in creative performance settings. To fill this void, the present dissertation reports a series of four laboratory experiments to show that imitation is a component of creative task performance, which differs from creativity in its reliance upon exemplars of other’s creative performance. It was found that imitation is an element of creative task performance, which is sometimes negatively, but other times positively related to creativity. Moreover, it was shown that contextual factors such as the quality of exemplars of other’s performance and presentation of such exemplars in abstract or specific terms play a powerful role in the creative process, while it was acknowledged that one’s tendencies to rely upon creative exemplars and one’s subsequent imitative or creative actions also depend on one’s dispositions to engage in social comparison, and on one’s self-regulatory focus. Imitation thus is an important factor in the creative process and worthwhile to further investigate in greater detail.