Defining and measuring inventive thinking: A scoping review

Inventive Thinking is widely recognized as a critical 21 st century competency, essential for navigating an economic landscape increasingly dominated by automation and artificial intelligence (AI). However, inconsistencies and ambiguities in its conceptualisation have hindered the development of coherent assessment frameworks and effective programs to foster this ability. The present scoping review synthesizes current literature to establish a working definition of Inventive Thinking that bridges the theoretical divide between purely cognitive models and dispositional frameworks. Systematic searches were conducted across four databases (Web of Science, Scopus, EBSCOhost and ProQuest database) yielding 23 relevant studies published over the past two decades. These studies spanned five countries and eight disciplinary domains. While all studies provided explicit or implicit definitions of Inventive Thinking, only 13 employed empirical measures. Amongst these, the five most frequently employed measures involves constructs of “Risk-taking”, “Curiosity”, “Higher-order Thinking”, “Self-regulation” and “Creativity”. Most studies utilized self-developed or adapted versions of validated questionnaires as primary assessment tools, revealing a significant gap in standardised measurement. Based on the synthesis of findings and a critical gap analysis, this review proposes a working definition of Inventive Thinking as an inherent human capacity, when cultivated, manifest as a competency integrating creativity, higher-order cognition, and dispositional traits such as curiosity, risk-taking, and self-regulation, enabling individuals to general innovative solutions to complex and novel problems with sociocultural awareness. The innovation of this definition lies in its explicit integration of “sociocultural awareness”, a differentiator absent in many existing definitions, and the combined roles of cognitive processes (e.g., higher order thinking) and dispositional elements (e.g., risk taking, persistence, self-regulation) which distinguishes human inventiveness from the generative capabilities of AI. Recommendations for validated instruments are aligned with this proposed definition to guide future research, promote construct clarity, and advance a shared global agenda for nurturing Inventive Thinking.