4.2.3 The Creative Product

The centrality and importance of studying the creative product has been pointed out by Mackinnon.

Although many researchers acknowledge the importance of this line of investigation, there appears to be a paucity of empirical investigation on the topic of creative products. One of the possible explanations for the lack of research in this area is the opinion that the problem is too easy. In other words, the identification of creative products is "obvious." Everyone knows a creative product when they see one. MacKinnon pointed out that this view might account for the scarcity of scientific investigation of creative products.

There are some who have conducted investigations of creative products. Much of this work has dealt with creative products in specific contexts. Very little has been done beyond individual disciplines and contexts to gain a more general picture of the characteristics of creative products. Although much emphasis has been placed on the need for a creative product to be novel; it is interesting to note that the current trend is to include aspects of relevance and appropriateness to the description of the creative product.

A related and more thoroughly‑researched area of study dealing with creative products involve the diffusion of innovations. There appears to be a general increase of interest in how new ideas or products are communicated or accepted by others. An increased interest in the process of innovation has also increased concern for studying communication to promote acceptance of new ideas. This area of study is called the diffusion of innovations.

When the book "Diffusion of Innovations" was first published in 1962, there were 405 publications about this topic available in the literature. By the end of 1983, there were more than 3,000 publications about diffusion, many of which were scientific investigations of the diffusion process. Rogers described diffusion as an information exchange occurring as a convergence process involving interpersonal networks. He asserted that the diffusion of innovations is a social process for communicating information about new ideas. The study of this process has examined specific attributes of innovations (such as relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trial ability, and observability) and how they influence acceptance.

These attributes of innovations may account for many of the reasons for their acceptance, but there are other variables which must also have an effect on the diffusion of new ideas and inventions. Other variables would include: the number of people involved in making a decision; the type of communication used; the environment or culture; and who is supporting or selling the new idea or product.