Invention and Inventivity as a Special Kind of Creativity, with Implications for General Creativity

Much of the study of creativity uses broad definitions of creative outputs, often including together the creative acts of artists, children, scientists, etc. Perhaps because of these broad definitions, it has been difficult to derive useful predictions of creativity. This paper examines a narrow slice of creativity, the invention and the inventor who makes the invention. Furthermore, a new parameter measuring inventors is defined — Inventivity is the rate of production of patents by an individual inventor. Examination of a large number of inventors shows that Inventivity is a parameter that can be measured and used to distinguish among inventors. The results are shown to be consistent with other studies and are used to support several theories of creativity.