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Creative problem-solving by corporations is frequently conducted within a group or a team framework. A relevant issue is to try to determine which type of corporate culture is most effective in enhancing performance in creative tasks. We present a series of experiments that aim at studying group creativity in contexts where corporate culture may tend to promote cooperation or competition among group members. Our experimental results show that cooperative corporate culture fosters creativity. We identify the reason for success as the emergence within the group of a social norm of high effort.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Figures and tables -- Acknowledgements -- Preface -- 1: What is competitiveness? -- 2: What is culture? -- 2.1 Culture in general -- 3: Japanese culture -- 3.1 Characteristic attributes of the Kami Way -- 3.2 Manifestations of the Kami Way attributes in history -- 4: The US culture -- 4.1 Characteristic attributes of the US culture -- 4.2 Charter of freedom -- 5: Similarities and differences between Japanese and the US cultures -- 6: Competitiveness and culture -- 7: What is enterprise competitiveness? -- 7.1 Three-layer structure of enterprise competitiveness -- 8: What is corporate culture? -- 8.1 Theories on corporate culture -- 9: Ohmi Merchants -- 10: The theory of Baigan Ishida's on merchant way -- 11: Corporate culture of today -- 11.1 Healthy culture of Hewlett-Packard's -- 11.2 Unhealthy culture of Xerox's -- 11.3 Turnaround of Nissan's from unhealthy culture -- 11.4 Confucianist Company -- 12: Competitiveness and corporate culture -- 12.1 Attributes of healthy corporate culture -- 13: Oticon, a 21st century-type company -- 14: The leading firm in the 21st century -- Epilogue -- Bibliography

Abstract
We investigate which form of corporate culture is most effective in enhancing individual performance in creative tasks conducted in group settings. We combine a series of experiments with a questionnaire on corporate values to test whether performance ranking and incentives succeed in instantiating a creative corporate culture. Being ranked against competitors and setting incentives at the group level serves as a social cue that appears to induce in members a significantly stronger pro-social attitude. When this attitude is shared by group members, a social norm of high effort emerges, and creative performance is significantly higher.