Understanding Factors of Innovative Thinking in Advertising Agencies: Case of Macedonian, Slovenian and Serbian Advertising Agencies

Increasing pressure for innovations is present in modern business, coping with financial crises, which places higher importance on creativity. Innovation is at the center of the Europe 2020 strategy for growth, and the European Council has recognized the need for urgent action in the field of innovation. And it is not just innovation in production, but especially innovative thinking seen as creativity, that is a priority for each company, institution or at a personal level. Creativity contributes towards higher competitiveness in the globalized market. This paper explores creativity as a fuel for innovativeness in advertising agencies in three countries in the Balkan region. The advertising agencies are tightly connected to creativity since they do not produce creative ideas for themselves, but focus on creative outputs for companies and institutions as their clients. In an attempt to understand the determinant of creativity this paper employs the methodology developed by Grant and Berry (2011). The paper uses a sample of employees from Macedonian, Serbian and Slovenian advertising agencies and explores the creativity and the determinants of creativity as any intrinsic and prosocial motivation. The research results show the level of creativity as judged by the supervisors as well as the employees’ thinking about what motivates them. By drawing upon existing literature and the survey results, this paper contributes to understanding of innovative thinking and enhancement of innovative ideas at advertising agencies and companies as their clients