Invitation to participate in the current project…
If you have been involved in creativity and innovation in an organisational context for over five years, your insights are valuable to this research.
This is a higher-degree research project in the School of Management at RMIT University and seeks input from both creative and management perspectives, across all industry sectors.
Participation involves a one hour audio-only interview that calls on your experiences of two hypothetical, yet familiar innovation situations.
Please submit a consent form below and you will be contacted to arrange an interview. The participant information contains the project details should you have questions.
Participant Information and Consent Form [PICF]
Title: Exploring the dynamic transition of creativity into innovation [RMIT approval: BLCHEAN 24925]
Principal Research Student: Stefan Kahn
Principal Investigator/Senior Supervisor: Professor. Anne-Laure Mention
Associate Investigator/Supervisor: Assoc. Professor. Cameron Duff
Consent Form
Declaration by Researcher: I have given a verbal explanation of the research project; its procedures and risks and believe that the participant has understood that explanation. Stefan Kahn
Acknowledgement by Participant: I have read and understood the participant information. I understand the purposes, procedures and risks of the research described in the project. I have had an opportunity to ask questions and I am satisfied with the answers I have received. I freely agree to participate in this research project as described and understand that I am free to withdraw at any time during the project without affecting my relationship with RMIT. I understand that I will be given a signed copy of this document to keep. I agree to being emailed by the researcher for the purposes described in this document, and provide my email address below. I agree to provide the following information about my professional experience to assist determining eligibility to participate and for interview questions to be directed appropriately:
Participant Information
What does my participation involve?
1 Introduction
You are invited to take part in this research project, which is called: Exploring the dynamic transition of creativity into innovation.
You have been invited because you may meet the selection criteria for the sample group. This Participant Information tells you about the research project. It explains the processes involved with taking part. Knowing what is involved will help you decide if you want to take part in the research.
Please read this information carefully. Ask questions about anything that you don’t understand or want to know more about. Before deciding whether to take part, you might want to talk about it with a colleague or friend.
Participation in this research is voluntary. If you don’t wish to take part, you don’t have to. If you decide you want to take part in the research project, you will be asked to sign the consent section. By signing it you are telling us that you:
Understand what you have read
Consent to take part in the research project
You will be given a copy of this Participant Information and Consent Form to keep.
Depending on relevant COVID restrictions at the time of the study, your participation may be conducted online via a digital platform like MS Teams. Where possible, however, interviews will be conducted face-to-face with the researcher.
2 What is the purpose of this research?
This research focuses on the use of creativity-by-individuals in the process of innovation-by-organisations. It draws distinction between these activities to specifically examine the relationship between creativity and innovation, and then to examine how individual creative practices contribute to innovation within organisations. The research is timely in that it responds to increasing complexity in technological and organisational innovation, while aiming to understand how social interaction influences efficiency and efficacy of particular innovations.
The research contributes to the understanding of how social and technological aspects of innovation can be brought together more effectively. Individuals are the knowledge source of organisational behaviour and the empirical study in this research consults them directly for frank accounts of professional experience and praxis in one semi-structured interview. From this, data will be analysed using constructivist grounded theory method. Then critically analysed against the common view of innovation and the anomaly found within it.
The empirical study is designed to ensure privacy and confidentiality for participants throughout. The results of this research will be used by the researcher Stefan Kahn to obtain a Masters by Research degree, but may be extended to PhD by Research degree. The project has been initiated by the researcher, Stefan Kahn, and is not funded. It is being conducted within the RMIT’s School of Management in the College of Business and Law.
3 What does participation in this research involve?
If you decide to take part in the research project, you are asked to sign the Consent Form at the end of this document. You are also asked to indicate the nature of your professional role by ticking the appropriate boxes and giving consent to an interview. Reading this document and filling in the Consent Form will take around 15 minutes.
You will be contacted by email to arrange a time suitable to you to complete an interview which will involve a series of questions around two hypothetical innovation scenarios, to stimulate discussion. You will be asked to respond to questions in a conversational style from your own professional opinion and experience relating to the two innovation scenarios.
A 1 hour interview will be conducted in English and audio recorded as a minimum requirement. In cases of online remote interview in the MSTeams platform, you will be offered the choice of switching your camera off, but it is not a requirement. You may find it more conversational if you and the interviewer can see each other, the choice is yours. In cases of face-to-face interview, audio-only will be recorded. No other method, such as written responses, are suitable. There are no costs associated with participating, nor will you be paid.
4 Other relevant information about the research project
There are two participant groups. You will be in one of those groups, selected by type of professional experience. The project will collect data only from Australia, and is conducted entirely within the RMIT institutional framework. It does not involve any other research organisation. The project is a stand-alone and will be concluded in the reporting of analysis and findings. The project may be extended with a follow-on study, but that will be established as a separate study.
5 Do I have to take part in this research project?
Participation in any research project is voluntary. If you do not wish to take part, you do not have to. If you decide to take part and later change your mind, you are free to withdraw at any stage. If you do decide to take part, you are given this Participant Information and Consent Form to sign and you may retain a copy to keep. Your decision whether to take part or not to take part, or to take part and then withdraw, will not affect your relationship with the researchers or with RMIT University. Submitting your completed Consent Form is an indication of your consent to participate in the study. You can withdraw this at any time up until the interview. You may stop the interview at any time. If you choose not to continue, unless you want us to keep them, any recordings will be erased and information you have provided will not be included in the study results. You may also refuse to answer any questions that you do not wish to.
6 What are the possible benefits of taking part?
We cannot guarantee or promise that you will receive any benefits from this research; however, you may appreciate contributing to knowledge. Possible benefits may include: Relevant fields of knowledge may gain from understanding, that may be applied in or inspire further research.
Organisations may gain in practical dimensions, allowing insights to add-to and modify their practices and strategies.
Participants may gain from participation by way of reflecting upon their own experiences.
Society as a whole may gain, with knowledge about how innovation occurs and how it can be better considered.
7 What are the risks and disadvantages of taking part?
It is not anticipated that there will be any risks with taking part in the project. Participation is designed to be simple, short, anonymous, non-intrusive and secure. You may feel some questions we ask are stressful. This is not by design and if you do not wish to answer a question, you may skip it, or you may stop. If you become distressed because of your participation in the research project, members of the research team will be able to discuss appropriate support for you.
8 What if I withdraw from this research project?
If you do consent to participate, you may withdraw at any time. If you decide to withdraw from the project, please notify a member of the research team. If you withdraw, your identification and interview data will be deleted permanently and immediately by the researcher. You have the right to have any unprocessed data withdrawn and destroyed, providing it can be reliably identified.
9 What happens when the research project ends?
On conclusion of this project you will be notified by email that the findings have been documented in a thesis. If the thesis is available publicly you will be able to read it in full. By design, it will not be possible to identify yours, or any other’s data or information in the thesis. All findings drawn from the data by the researcher shall be the property of the researcher.
How is the research project being conducted?
10 What will happen to information about me?
The participant’s Consent Form is the only identification data we will collect. Any other information obtained in connection with this project that can identify you will remain confidential. Once your consent is accepted, your identification will be anonymised with an ID code stored in a secure password protected master file stored on the RMIT server. Beyond this only ID codes will be used in analysis. Original audio files of interviews will be stored digitally and transcribed. Identification will be anonymised as above and only de-identified transcripts will be used for analysis. All raw and working data files will be archived for a maximum of 5 years in accordance with ethics approval and, upon which they will be de-identified and permanently deleted. None of your data will be made available to others, either in a databank or for other research. It is anticipated that the results from this research project will be published and/or presented in a variety of forums. In any case, information will only be presented in such a way that you cannot be identified, except with your express permission. In accordance with Australian and/or Victorian privacy and other relevant laws, you have the right to request access to information about you that is collected and stored. You also have the right to request that any information with which you disagree be corrected. Please inform the researcher named at the end of this document if you would like to access your information. Any information that you provide can be disclosed only if (1) it protects you or others from harm, (2) if specifically allowed by law, (3) you provide the researchers with written permission.
11 Who is organising and funding the research?
This research project is not funded research and is organised by the researcher under obligations to the RMIT Higher Degree by Research (HDR) program. There are no conflicts of interest [NS 2.2.6 (i)].
12 Who has reviewed the research project?
All research in Australia involving humans is reviewed by an independent group of people called a Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC). This research project has been approved by the RMIT University HREC. RMIT ethics approval: BLCHEAN 24925. This project will be carried out according to the National Statement on Ethical Conduct in Human Research (2007). This statement has been developed to protect the interests of people who agree to participate in human research studies.
13 Further information and who to contact
If you want any further information concerning this project, you can contact the researcher on 0412 535 111 or stefan.kahn@student.rmit.edu.au or any of the following people:
Research contact person
Name: Stefan Kahn, Researcher
Telephone: 0412 535 111 Email: stefan.kahn@student.rmit.edu.au
Supervisors
Name: Prof. Anne-Laure Mention, Principal investigator/Senior supervisor
Telephone: +61 3 99255358 Email: anne-laure.mention@rmit.edu.au
Name: Assoc. Prof. Cameron Duff, Co-investigator/Second supervisor
Telephone: +61 3 99255920 Email: cameron.duff@rmit.edu.au
14 Complaints
Should you have any concerns or questions about this research project, which you do not wish to discuss with the researchers listed in this document, then you may contact:
Reviewing HREC name: RMIT University HREC Secretary: Vivienne Moyle
Telephone: 03 9925 5037 Email: humanethics@rmit.edu.au
Mailing address: Manager, Research Governance and Ethics, RMIT University, GPO Box 2476, MELBOURNE VIC 3001