sustainability Article The Sustainability of Creativity Anna-Maria Kanzola and Panagiotis E. Petrakis *   Citation: Kanzola, A.-M.; Petrakis, P.E. The Sustainability of Creativity. Sustainability 2021, 13, 2776. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052776 Academic Editors: Mohammad Nurunnabi and Andrea Pérez Received: 31 January 2021 Accepted: 23 February 2021 Published: 4 March 2021 Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affil- iations. Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/). Department of Economics, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, 10562 Athens, Greece; annmkanz@econ.uoa.gr * Correspondence: ppetrak@econ.uoa.gr Abstract: Creativity is a critical element of sustainable development. In current paper it is described through Social Identity by identifying the main factors that shape the background of creativity. We conclude that health, maturity, and positive attitudes of cultural change as well as the social stability, the environmental care and finally, the incentives, material and non-material, shape the human creative dynamism. Keywords: creativity; culture; Greece 1. Introduction The concept of creativity refers to the development of a new product, service or means of solving a problem and it is highly important for both the individual and society in general [1]. Cultural background includes social beliefs, customs, systems of sanctions and rewards, and social institutions [2,3]. It is fostered and promoted through social learning [4] and social interactions. Sustainability of economic development is a major issue of policy making as new creative ideas must be applied in order to achieve sustainable development. A culture that focuses to sustainability goals embeds creativity as well because it is a critical factor of change, after all, creativity and sustainability are closely linked [5]. On the other hand, the development of the social background hinges on human inventiveness and creativity. The development of the social background hinges on human inventiveness and creativity. In economic science, creativity is an essential component of development and en- trepreneurship [6–10] It is probably the basic source of business ideas responsible for the successful growth of the economy. At times (like today) characterized by conditions of intense uncertainty and low nominal returns, the creative function plays an important part as it seeks out (rare) business opportunities and contributes to their successful im- plementation. Creative individuals are the ones who bring about a productive change in the system. This paper attempts to quantify creativity and the factors shaping it in relation to Greek society, utilizing empirical field research data from the two-year period 2019–2020. It is noted that the behavioral profile of 2020, despite displaying certain effects from the COVID-19 crisis, shows a comparative stability in relation to that of 2019, [11] mainly due to the widely held conviction that COVID-19 is a short-term crisis. Usually, creativity is approached through the observation of individual (psychological) traits [12]. Here, a wider approach to the factors impacting creativity is selected, through social identity theory. A similar approach has been attempted in the past [13] focusing on those traits of social groups which shape creativity and how it is received by the environment. Next, the behavioral profile is elaborated of (Greek) society, as it is affected by objective factors (education, age, etc.) and its influence on creativity is discussed. Part 2 is devoted to a theoretical analysis of the behavioral profile of societies and the factors determining creativity and how identity relates overall to creativity. In Part 3, issues are presented to do with the measurement of the behavioral profile and creativity, Sustainability 2021, 13, 2776. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13052776 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability