Manajemen | Fakultas Ekonomi Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji 08832320903258451
Journal of Education for Business
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Developing and Verifying a Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool: A Nationwide Study in Taiwan
Kai-Wen Cheng & Yu-Fen Chen
To cite this article: Kai-Wen Cheng & Yu-Fen Chen (2009) Developing and Verifying a BusinessCreativity Assessment Tool: A Nationwide Study in Taiwan, Journal of Education for Business,
85:2, 78-84, DOI: 10.1080/08832320903258451
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320903258451
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 90
View related articles
Citing articles: 1 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:28
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 85: 78–84, 2010
C Heldref Publications
Copyright
ISSN: 0883-2323
DOI: 10.1080/08832320903258451
Developing and Verifying a Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool: A Nationwide Study in Taiwan
Kai-Wen Cheng
Kaohsiung Hospitality College, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
Yu-Fen Chen
Chihlee Institute of Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
This study was designed to assess business creativity of students in Taiwan. A questionnaire
was developed and administered to students in business-related departments of 16 vocational
schools during November 2006. Of the 1,420 administered questionnaires, 1,052 were valid,
resulting in a valid response rate of 70.48%. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation
modeling (SEM) were separately applied to extract the constructs and items involved in the
business-creativity assessment tool and to verify the goodness of fit of this proposed model.
The results showed that the proposed business creativity assessment tool comprised 21 items
in 5 constructs, including environment, instruction method, personality, parental support, and
confidence feedback. Through SEM, the proposed assessment tool exhibited goodness of fit
on several indices.
Keywords: Business creativity, Creativity, EFA, SEM
Since the 1990s, many universities in America have established creativity research centers to study creative teaching
and provide creativity-related courses for undergraduates and
graduate students (Wu et al., 2002). Many Asian countries
also began to stress the importance of creativity in later times.
For instance, in 2003, the Minister of Education of Singapore proposed “Innovation and Enterprise, I&E” as an important direction for future education reforms, in hope of developing innovation and entrepreneurship of local students
as early as childhood. In face of growing challenges from
global economies, all nations worldwide have unanimously
agreed that innovation and creativity are key to increase of
competitiveness (Hsu, 2006).
Over the past years, much attention has been given to the
teaching and research of creativity in Taiwan. In January of
2002, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China
(Taiwan) issued “The White Paper on Creative Education”
in hope of creating a republic of creativity.
In the fields of engineering and arts, many approaches for
presentation of creativity are available. As a result, most of
Correspondence should be addressed to
Kaohsiung Hospitality College, Kaohsiung,
kevin1188@mail.nkhc.edu.tw
Kai-Wen
Taiwan.
Cheng,
E-mail:
the previous studies of creativity have focused on creativity in the psychological, arts, and engineering areas (Hsu,
2001). However, creative performances in other areas may
be more significant and valuable. The Ministry of Education
in Taiwan launched a series of projects on creative teaching
in 2001 to enhance students’ ability to innovate in business.
So far, a set of universal criteria for the evaluation of students’ business creativity has not been developed. Therefore,
the main purpose of this study was to develop an assessment
tool to measure students’ business creativity and verify the
goodness of fit of this tool.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Creativity
Since Guilford (1959) proposed the term creativity in the
American Psychological Association, many scholars have
been engaged in various research studies on creativity. Guilford defined creativity as an essential mental activity for
human beings. The patterns of creativity include cognition,
memory, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and evaluation thinking. Parnes (1961) argued that creativity is the
ability to form a new hypothesis for a question, to revise or
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
BUSINESS-CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT TOOL
retest the hypothesis in order to solve the problem. Williams
(1970) defined that creativity is in relation to fluency, sensitivity, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Moustakas (1972)
argued that creativity is an individual’s ability to experience
life in an individual way, know oneself, and fully exploit his
or her potential. According to Barron and Harrington (1981)
and Gove (1986), creativity is the ability to bring a new
idea into existence. Amabile (1983) described creativity as
a confluence of task motivation, domain-relevant knowledge
and abilities, and creativity-relevant skills. However, Sternberg and Lubart (1995, 1996) argued that creativity requires
a confluence of six distinct but interrelated resources: intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality,
motivation, and environment. Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin
(1993) mentioned that creativity is the production of novel
and useful ideas in any domain. In brief, creativity is based
on experience and signifies breakthroughs of old concepts
and adoption of new methods.
Business Creativity
Business creativity may be a new term to some people, as a
standard definition of this term is still unavailable. The Ministry of Education in Taiwan has been engaged in developing
teaching materials and methods on creativity to enhance students’ ability to innovate in business. In addition to “The
White Paper on Creative Education” (2002), many issues
have also been proposed. The Center for Creativity and Innovation Studies of National Cheng-Chi University (2005)
classified these issues into four bussiness-related fields as
subsequently described. In this article, we define business
creativity as creativity presented in business-related fields.
Creativity & Innovation
According to Woodman et al. (1993), creativity is a starting point of innovation. Hsu (2001) also pointed out that
innovation is the major force that propels the changing of
technological patterns in any industry. The importance of the
role that innovation plays in industries is undeniable. Innovation does not come out of nowhere; it is the rearrangement
of all available information (Wu, 2005). In addition, innovation is not simply being different. It requires uniqueness and
novelty of an individual together with propriety and usage
in business (Wu). For any business, the ability to create and
innovate is one of the success factors (WuCoulson & Strickland, 2005). Only with the ability to create and innovate can a
company maintain its competitiveness in its field (Feldman,
2004). In other words, a business can survive because it is
capable of bringing up new products and services (Proctor,
1991; Van Gundy, 1987).
In brief, creativity is the basis of innovative knowledge,
innovation is the embodiment of creativity. Creativity and
innovation are supportive of each other.
79
Creativity & Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship symbolizes the activities in which human
beings pursue opportunities to obtain a sense of achievement (Center for Creativity and Innovation Studies of National Cheng-Chi University, 2005). An entrepreneur promotes various kinds of innovation by means of carrying out
originality, which functions as the main source of motivation
to accelerate progress in human life (Center for Creativity
and Innovation Studies of National Cheng-Chi University).
Programs about entrepreneurship have attracted considerable
attention. For instance, “Creativity Cultivation,” “Creativity
& Marketing Strategy,” and “Entrepreneurship, Creativity
& Organization” offered by Stanford University, Wharton
Business School, and Harvard University, respectively, are
usually fully signed up. Obviously, students are aware of
the importance of these programs. Marketing and financial
management, which are indispensable to entrepreneurship,
are also areas that most students are interested in (National
Youth Commission, 2005).
Russell L. Ackoff argued that management education
should start with founding a company or developing a product (Detrick, 2002). Students need to plan a new business and
engage themselves in manufacturing, marketing, finance, and
all other business related affairs. In so doing, they learn more
than from textbooks. They can acquire and integrate knowledge in various areas (Detrick). Thus, entrepreneurship is
more than the implementation of creativity. It is the practical
application of creativity to running a business.
Creativity & Marketing
Marketing requires originality, and an innovator can often
win in a marketing competition. A solution cannot apply to
all marketing problems. For this reason, creativity plays a key
role in marketing. Everything, including developing a new
product, naming a brand, designing the logo, and planning
the outlets, calls for creativity (Chen, 2002).
Creativity is regarded as one of the keys to creating and
sustaining a successful business (Michaela, 2001; Robinson
& Stern, 1997). In face of increasing competitions in the
market, all businesses are required to constantly update their
products and marketing activities. Such update of products
and marketing activities calls for new ideas from employees.
Therefore, creativity of employees nurtures the growth of
marketing of a company.
Creativity & Manufacturing
Nowadays, the appeal to technology and innovation has created a new world. To maintain competitive advantages, a
business cannot afford to ignore creativity. Introducing creativity into production, equipment, cost, and the whole network can not only assist a traditional industry to upgrade but
also reinforce its the core competitiveness (Liu, 2002). Thus,
creativity is underscored in production and management. A
80
K.-W. CHENG AND Y.-F. CHEN
business needs creative manpower to face the challenges of
the time.
RESEARCH METHODS
Data-Collection Procedure
Document Analysis
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
Through document analysis, theories and related studies
of creativity were explored to build a theoretical foundation
for the design of focus-group interviews and the questionnaire.
In-depth Interview
Three experts with experiences in creative invention, innovative management, and entrepreneurship were involved
in the in-depth interview. Their perspectives about the creativity that is required in business helped clarify the content
of business creativity from the standpoint of the industry.
total of 1,420 questionnaires were distributed to students in
16 schools in November 2006. In the first step, the researcher
(Cheng) contacted the teachers of the surveyed class and explained the process of the survey on the phone. Later, formal
questionnaires were mailed to the teachers along with notes
of instructions. The teachers were asked to select a class
period in which to conduct the survey. The subjects were students present in the survey period, and absent students were
not required to make up the test later. A total of 1,303 questionnaires were collected, and 1,052 were valid, resulting in
the valid response rate of 74.08%. As the sample size was
large enough, SPSS (Version 10.0) was used to equally and
randomly divide the sample into two groups. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the first sample group
to extract the constructs and items involved in the businesscreativity assessment tool. As to the second sample group,
a structural equation model (SEM) was applied to verify
the goodness of fit of the proposed business-creativity assessment tool according to procedures identified by Bentler
(1990).
Focus-group Interview
A total of four scholars and three experts were invited to
take part in the focus group interview. Their opinions formed
the basis of the follow-up questionnaire design.
Content Analysis
Data collected from the document analysis, in-depth interview, and focus-group interview were analyzed to develop
the constructs and corresponding items for the assessment of
business creativity.
Questionnaire Survey
According to the results of the previous procedures, a
draft questionnaire comprising 52 items was designed based
on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Three experts in this field
were invited to review the questionnaire and provide suggestions. Their suggestions were followed to modify the draft
and complete a pretest questionnaire with expert validity.
The pretest was intended to understand the feasibility of
the questionnaire. A total of 160 questionnaires were distributed, and 147 returned. In all, 122 responses were valid,
resulting in a valid response rate of 76.25%. The pretest
result indicated a high reliability and validity of the draft
questionnaire.
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Development of the Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool
Result of the Item Analysis
It can be discovered that, with the exception of Item 11,
all the other items reached the significance level in the t test,
indicating that 51 items of the scale had the discriminant
validity. In addition, the corrected item-total correlation and
the Cronbach’s alpha in the reliability analysis were tested.
Based on the result of the item analysis, Item 11 was deleted
and all the other 51 items were reserved.
Result of the EFA
From four rounds of factor analyses on the 51 items, 5
factors were derived. Items with a factor loading higher than
.5 were extracted. All the items had a factor loading above .5,
and the total explained variance was 56.15%. Of the 51 items,
only 21 items were reserved. The remaining 5 constructs
(factors) were respectively named environment, instruction
method, personality, parental support, and confidence feedback, and each item was also given a new number as shown
in Table 1.
Research Participants
Based on the total number of students in business-related
departments (commercial management, international trade,
accounting, and data processing) of vocational schools released by the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of
Education in 2005, a random sampling was conducted. A
Result of Reliability Analysis
Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of this scale. The overall Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of this scale was .941, indicating the proposed
questionnaire had a high-level reliability.
BUSINESS-CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT TOOL
81
TABLE 1
Summary of Constructs and Items in Formal questionnaire
Construct
Environment
Instruction method
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
Personality
Parental support
Confidence feedback
Old item
New item
Factor loading
Explained variance
Cumulative explained
variance
47
48
49
50
51
52
40
41
42
43
1
2
3
4
5
36
37
38
31
33
46
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
.651
.793
.751
.620
.773
.768
.547
.804
.816
.673
.562
.670
.649
.581
.620
.885
.865
.606
.573
.597
.639
29.099%
29.099%
9.461%
38.561%
8.154%
46.715%
5.661%
52.376%
3.774%
56.150%
Verification of the Business Creativity
Assessment Tool
LISREL 8.52 was employed to verify the business-creativity
assessment tool. As the analysis of the model was based on
the full information technique, this estimation method was
designed according to the theory of normality. The impact
of sample distribution was tremendous, so the estimation
method had to be determined according to the type of sample distribution. All the observed variables had an absolute
skewness value smaller than 3 and an absolute kurtosis value
smaller than 10. These variables were normal under the criteria proposed by Kline (2005). Thus, according to the skewness and kurtosis of all the observed variables, the impact
of normal distribution estimation was minimal. Maximum
likelihood was then adopted to estimate model parameters.
(AGFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA),
and comparative fit index (CFI).
As shown in Table 2, the tool’s overall goodness of fit
was not good because p was smaller than .000. Bagozzi & Yi
(1998) and Huang (2004) suggested that χ 2 is significantly
affected by sample size, so the ratio of χ 2 to df may be a better
value to assess the tool’s overall goodness of fit. According
to Marsh, Balla, and McDonald (1988), the recommended
value of this ratio is 5. In the present study, the ratio of χ 2 to
df (4.88) is smaller than 5. In addition, all the other indices
exceeded their respective recommended levels suggested by
previous research (Baumgartner & Homburg, 1996; Hair,
Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006). Overall, the proposed tool exhibited goodness of fit on several indices.
TABLE 2
Fit Indices for the Proposed Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool
Check on Offending Estimates
Before verifying the goodness of fit of the proposed
model, it was necessary to make sure that the estimated parameters did not have any improper solution. If there was, it
would be an offending estimate (Huang, 2002). No offending
estimate was observed.
Tool’s Overall Goodness of Fit
According to Bagozzi and Yi (1998), Jöreskog and
Sörbom (1992), and Bentler (1990, 1992), six common
goodness-of-fit indices were used to assess the tool’s overall
goodness of fit: χ 2, the ratio of χ 2 to degrees of freedom (df ),
goodness-of-fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness-of-fit index
Fit index
Recommended
value
χ2
≤3
Ratio of χ 2 to degrees of freedom
(χ 2/df )
Goodness of fit index (GFI)
Adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI)
Root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA)
Comparative fit index (CFI)
>5
Businesscreativity
tool
898.74
(p < .000)
4.88 (184)
.8
ISSN: 0883-2323 (Print) 1940-3356 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/vjeb20
Developing and Verifying a Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool: A Nationwide Study in Taiwan
Kai-Wen Cheng & Yu-Fen Chen
To cite this article: Kai-Wen Cheng & Yu-Fen Chen (2009) Developing and Verifying a BusinessCreativity Assessment Tool: A Nationwide Study in Taiwan, Journal of Education for Business,
85:2, 78-84, DOI: 10.1080/08832320903258451
To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08832320903258451
Published online: 07 Aug 2010.
Submit your article to this journal
Article views: 90
View related articles
Citing articles: 1 View citing articles
Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at
http://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=vjeb20
Download by: [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji]
Date: 11 January 2016, At: 22:28
JOURNAL OF EDUCATION FOR BUSINESS, 85: 78–84, 2010
C Heldref Publications
Copyright
ISSN: 0883-2323
DOI: 10.1080/08832320903258451
Developing and Verifying a Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool: A Nationwide Study in Taiwan
Kai-Wen Cheng
Kaohsiung Hospitality College, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
Yu-Fen Chen
Chihlee Institute of Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
This study was designed to assess business creativity of students in Taiwan. A questionnaire
was developed and administered to students in business-related departments of 16 vocational
schools during November 2006. Of the 1,420 administered questionnaires, 1,052 were valid,
resulting in a valid response rate of 70.48%. Exploratory factor analysis and structural equation
modeling (SEM) were separately applied to extract the constructs and items involved in the
business-creativity assessment tool and to verify the goodness of fit of this proposed model.
The results showed that the proposed business creativity assessment tool comprised 21 items
in 5 constructs, including environment, instruction method, personality, parental support, and
confidence feedback. Through SEM, the proposed assessment tool exhibited goodness of fit
on several indices.
Keywords: Business creativity, Creativity, EFA, SEM
Since the 1990s, many universities in America have established creativity research centers to study creative teaching
and provide creativity-related courses for undergraduates and
graduate students (Wu et al., 2002). Many Asian countries
also began to stress the importance of creativity in later times.
For instance, in 2003, the Minister of Education of Singapore proposed “Innovation and Enterprise, I&E” as an important direction for future education reforms, in hope of developing innovation and entrepreneurship of local students
as early as childhood. In face of growing challenges from
global economies, all nations worldwide have unanimously
agreed that innovation and creativity are key to increase of
competitiveness (Hsu, 2006).
Over the past years, much attention has been given to the
teaching and research of creativity in Taiwan. In January of
2002, the Ministry of Education of the Republic of China
(Taiwan) issued “The White Paper on Creative Education”
in hope of creating a republic of creativity.
In the fields of engineering and arts, many approaches for
presentation of creativity are available. As a result, most of
Correspondence should be addressed to
Kaohsiung Hospitality College, Kaohsiung,
kevin1188@mail.nkhc.edu.tw
Kai-Wen
Taiwan.
Cheng,
E-mail:
the previous studies of creativity have focused on creativity in the psychological, arts, and engineering areas (Hsu,
2001). However, creative performances in other areas may
be more significant and valuable. The Ministry of Education
in Taiwan launched a series of projects on creative teaching
in 2001 to enhance students’ ability to innovate in business.
So far, a set of universal criteria for the evaluation of students’ business creativity has not been developed. Therefore,
the main purpose of this study was to develop an assessment
tool to measure students’ business creativity and verify the
goodness of fit of this tool.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Creativity
Since Guilford (1959) proposed the term creativity in the
American Psychological Association, many scholars have
been engaged in various research studies on creativity. Guilford defined creativity as an essential mental activity for
human beings. The patterns of creativity include cognition,
memory, divergent thinking, convergent thinking, and evaluation thinking. Parnes (1961) argued that creativity is the
ability to form a new hypothesis for a question, to revise or
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
BUSINESS-CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT TOOL
retest the hypothesis in order to solve the problem. Williams
(1970) defined that creativity is in relation to fluency, sensitivity, flexibility, originality, and elaboration. Moustakas (1972)
argued that creativity is an individual’s ability to experience
life in an individual way, know oneself, and fully exploit his
or her potential. According to Barron and Harrington (1981)
and Gove (1986), creativity is the ability to bring a new
idea into existence. Amabile (1983) described creativity as
a confluence of task motivation, domain-relevant knowledge
and abilities, and creativity-relevant skills. However, Sternberg and Lubart (1995, 1996) argued that creativity requires
a confluence of six distinct but interrelated resources: intellectual abilities, knowledge, styles of thinking, personality,
motivation, and environment. Woodman, Sawyer, and Griffin
(1993) mentioned that creativity is the production of novel
and useful ideas in any domain. In brief, creativity is based
on experience and signifies breakthroughs of old concepts
and adoption of new methods.
Business Creativity
Business creativity may be a new term to some people, as a
standard definition of this term is still unavailable. The Ministry of Education in Taiwan has been engaged in developing
teaching materials and methods on creativity to enhance students’ ability to innovate in business. In addition to “The
White Paper on Creative Education” (2002), many issues
have also been proposed. The Center for Creativity and Innovation Studies of National Cheng-Chi University (2005)
classified these issues into four bussiness-related fields as
subsequently described. In this article, we define business
creativity as creativity presented in business-related fields.
Creativity & Innovation
According to Woodman et al. (1993), creativity is a starting point of innovation. Hsu (2001) also pointed out that
innovation is the major force that propels the changing of
technological patterns in any industry. The importance of the
role that innovation plays in industries is undeniable. Innovation does not come out of nowhere; it is the rearrangement
of all available information (Wu, 2005). In addition, innovation is not simply being different. It requires uniqueness and
novelty of an individual together with propriety and usage
in business (Wu). For any business, the ability to create and
innovate is one of the success factors (WuCoulson & Strickland, 2005). Only with the ability to create and innovate can a
company maintain its competitiveness in its field (Feldman,
2004). In other words, a business can survive because it is
capable of bringing up new products and services (Proctor,
1991; Van Gundy, 1987).
In brief, creativity is the basis of innovative knowledge,
innovation is the embodiment of creativity. Creativity and
innovation are supportive of each other.
79
Creativity & Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship symbolizes the activities in which human
beings pursue opportunities to obtain a sense of achievement (Center for Creativity and Innovation Studies of National Cheng-Chi University, 2005). An entrepreneur promotes various kinds of innovation by means of carrying out
originality, which functions as the main source of motivation
to accelerate progress in human life (Center for Creativity
and Innovation Studies of National Cheng-Chi University).
Programs about entrepreneurship have attracted considerable
attention. For instance, “Creativity Cultivation,” “Creativity
& Marketing Strategy,” and “Entrepreneurship, Creativity
& Organization” offered by Stanford University, Wharton
Business School, and Harvard University, respectively, are
usually fully signed up. Obviously, students are aware of
the importance of these programs. Marketing and financial
management, which are indispensable to entrepreneurship,
are also areas that most students are interested in (National
Youth Commission, 2005).
Russell L. Ackoff argued that management education
should start with founding a company or developing a product (Detrick, 2002). Students need to plan a new business and
engage themselves in manufacturing, marketing, finance, and
all other business related affairs. In so doing, they learn more
than from textbooks. They can acquire and integrate knowledge in various areas (Detrick). Thus, entrepreneurship is
more than the implementation of creativity. It is the practical
application of creativity to running a business.
Creativity & Marketing
Marketing requires originality, and an innovator can often
win in a marketing competition. A solution cannot apply to
all marketing problems. For this reason, creativity plays a key
role in marketing. Everything, including developing a new
product, naming a brand, designing the logo, and planning
the outlets, calls for creativity (Chen, 2002).
Creativity is regarded as one of the keys to creating and
sustaining a successful business (Michaela, 2001; Robinson
& Stern, 1997). In face of increasing competitions in the
market, all businesses are required to constantly update their
products and marketing activities. Such update of products
and marketing activities calls for new ideas from employees.
Therefore, creativity of employees nurtures the growth of
marketing of a company.
Creativity & Manufacturing
Nowadays, the appeal to technology and innovation has created a new world. To maintain competitive advantages, a
business cannot afford to ignore creativity. Introducing creativity into production, equipment, cost, and the whole network can not only assist a traditional industry to upgrade but
also reinforce its the core competitiveness (Liu, 2002). Thus,
creativity is underscored in production and management. A
80
K.-W. CHENG AND Y.-F. CHEN
business needs creative manpower to face the challenges of
the time.
RESEARCH METHODS
Data-Collection Procedure
Document Analysis
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
Through document analysis, theories and related studies
of creativity were explored to build a theoretical foundation
for the design of focus-group interviews and the questionnaire.
In-depth Interview
Three experts with experiences in creative invention, innovative management, and entrepreneurship were involved
in the in-depth interview. Their perspectives about the creativity that is required in business helped clarify the content
of business creativity from the standpoint of the industry.
total of 1,420 questionnaires were distributed to students in
16 schools in November 2006. In the first step, the researcher
(Cheng) contacted the teachers of the surveyed class and explained the process of the survey on the phone. Later, formal
questionnaires were mailed to the teachers along with notes
of instructions. The teachers were asked to select a class
period in which to conduct the survey. The subjects were students present in the survey period, and absent students were
not required to make up the test later. A total of 1,303 questionnaires were collected, and 1,052 were valid, resulting in
the valid response rate of 74.08%. As the sample size was
large enough, SPSS (Version 10.0) was used to equally and
randomly divide the sample into two groups. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the first sample group
to extract the constructs and items involved in the businesscreativity assessment tool. As to the second sample group,
a structural equation model (SEM) was applied to verify
the goodness of fit of the proposed business-creativity assessment tool according to procedures identified by Bentler
(1990).
Focus-group Interview
A total of four scholars and three experts were invited to
take part in the focus group interview. Their opinions formed
the basis of the follow-up questionnaire design.
Content Analysis
Data collected from the document analysis, in-depth interview, and focus-group interview were analyzed to develop
the constructs and corresponding items for the assessment of
business creativity.
Questionnaire Survey
According to the results of the previous procedures, a
draft questionnaire comprising 52 items was designed based
on a 5-point Likert-type scale. Three experts in this field
were invited to review the questionnaire and provide suggestions. Their suggestions were followed to modify the draft
and complete a pretest questionnaire with expert validity.
The pretest was intended to understand the feasibility of
the questionnaire. A total of 160 questionnaires were distributed, and 147 returned. In all, 122 responses were valid,
resulting in a valid response rate of 76.25%. The pretest
result indicated a high reliability and validity of the draft
questionnaire.
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS
Development of the Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool
Result of the Item Analysis
It can be discovered that, with the exception of Item 11,
all the other items reached the significance level in the t test,
indicating that 51 items of the scale had the discriminant
validity. In addition, the corrected item-total correlation and
the Cronbach’s alpha in the reliability analysis were tested.
Based on the result of the item analysis, Item 11 was deleted
and all the other 51 items were reserved.
Result of the EFA
From four rounds of factor analyses on the 51 items, 5
factors were derived. Items with a factor loading higher than
.5 were extracted. All the items had a factor loading above .5,
and the total explained variance was 56.15%. Of the 51 items,
only 21 items were reserved. The remaining 5 constructs
(factors) were respectively named environment, instruction
method, personality, parental support, and confidence feedback, and each item was also given a new number as shown
in Table 1.
Research Participants
Based on the total number of students in business-related
departments (commercial management, international trade,
accounting, and data processing) of vocational schools released by the Department of Statistics of the Ministry of
Education in 2005, a random sampling was conducted. A
Result of Reliability Analysis
Cronbach’s coefficient alpha was used to assess the internal consistency of this scale. The overall Cronbach’s coefficient alpha of this scale was .941, indicating the proposed
questionnaire had a high-level reliability.
BUSINESS-CREATIVITY ASSESSMENT TOOL
81
TABLE 1
Summary of Constructs and Items in Formal questionnaire
Construct
Environment
Instruction method
Downloaded by [Universitas Maritim Raja Ali Haji] at 22:28 11 January 2016
Personality
Parental support
Confidence feedback
Old item
New item
Factor loading
Explained variance
Cumulative explained
variance
47
48
49
50
51
52
40
41
42
43
1
2
3
4
5
36
37
38
31
33
46
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
.651
.793
.751
.620
.773
.768
.547
.804
.816
.673
.562
.670
.649
.581
.620
.885
.865
.606
.573
.597
.639
29.099%
29.099%
9.461%
38.561%
8.154%
46.715%
5.661%
52.376%
3.774%
56.150%
Verification of the Business Creativity
Assessment Tool
LISREL 8.52 was employed to verify the business-creativity
assessment tool. As the analysis of the model was based on
the full information technique, this estimation method was
designed according to the theory of normality. The impact
of sample distribution was tremendous, so the estimation
method had to be determined according to the type of sample distribution. All the observed variables had an absolute
skewness value smaller than 3 and an absolute kurtosis value
smaller than 10. These variables were normal under the criteria proposed by Kline (2005). Thus, according to the skewness and kurtosis of all the observed variables, the impact
of normal distribution estimation was minimal. Maximum
likelihood was then adopted to estimate model parameters.
(AGFI), root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA),
and comparative fit index (CFI).
As shown in Table 2, the tool’s overall goodness of fit
was not good because p was smaller than .000. Bagozzi & Yi
(1998) and Huang (2004) suggested that χ 2 is significantly
affected by sample size, so the ratio of χ 2 to df may be a better
value to assess the tool’s overall goodness of fit. According
to Marsh, Balla, and McDonald (1988), the recommended
value of this ratio is 5. In the present study, the ratio of χ 2 to
df (4.88) is smaller than 5. In addition, all the other indices
exceeded their respective recommended levels suggested by
previous research (Baumgartner & Homburg, 1996; Hair,
Black, Babin, Anderson, & Tatham, 2006). Overall, the proposed tool exhibited goodness of fit on several indices.
TABLE 2
Fit Indices for the Proposed Business-Creativity
Assessment Tool
Check on Offending Estimates
Before verifying the goodness of fit of the proposed
model, it was necessary to make sure that the estimated parameters did not have any improper solution. If there was, it
would be an offending estimate (Huang, 2002). No offending
estimate was observed.
Tool’s Overall Goodness of Fit
According to Bagozzi and Yi (1998), Jöreskog and
Sörbom (1992), and Bentler (1990, 1992), six common
goodness-of-fit indices were used to assess the tool’s overall
goodness of fit: χ 2, the ratio of χ 2 to degrees of freedom (df ),
goodness-of-fit index (GFI), adjusted goodness-of-fit index
Fit index
Recommended
value
χ2
≤3
Ratio of χ 2 to degrees of freedom
(χ 2/df )
Goodness of fit index (GFI)
Adjusted goodness of fit index (AGFI)
Root mean square error of
approximation (RMSEA)
Comparative fit index (CFI)
>5
Businesscreativity
tool
898.74
(p < .000)
4.88 (184)
.8