Novelty in Creativity and Innovation Management Research: The What and How for Authors and Reviewers

Novelty is widely regarded as the foundation of scholarly contributions, yet its definition and pathways to achieve novelty re-main too open for interpretation, especially for young scholars. This article reviews existing debates on novelty and advances adefinition and framework that connects different knowledge production modes to three distinct pathways for generating novelresearch in management studies with a particular focus on the field of Creativity and Innovation Management. We argue thatestablishing novelty in a scientific domain requires a more nuanced argument than “what is observed and what is missing.” Thisarticle unfolds two questions: what is novelty in scientific research and what are the pathways to identifying and arguing fornovelty. The article uses these to develop a novelty canvas for authors and an evaluative tool for reviewers and editors. These twotools are complemented with key questions, which authors and reviewers can use for reflecting on, articulating, and evaluatingthe novelty of research. By providing guidance for authors in the form of the novelty canvas, and for reviewers and editors in theform of an evaluation framework for novelty, this article gives practical guidance that may sharpen an understanding and moredetailed view of novelty to ultimately advance the knowledge production within business studies and specifically creativity andinnovation management research. Novelty, however, cannot be pursued in isolation, but must be balanced with rigor, relevance,and impact.