About Dr. Besemer

Dr. Susan P. Besemer was one of the first graduates of the Creative Studies program at Buffalo State College. Her distinguished academic credentials include:

•   A BA from SUNY Albany
•   A Masters in Library Science from Indiana University
•   A  Masters in Creative Studies from Buffalo State College
•   A doctorate in cognitive psychology from the University of Bergen, Norway.

Dr. Besemer’s career highlights consists of teaching positions at SUNY College at Fredonia, Buffalo State College, Empire State College and SUNY Buffalo. In addition, Dr. Besemer has stayed active in the creativity community by serving as a faculty member at the annual Creative Problem Solving Institute for 20 years.

Dr. Besemer is passionate about products. While working as a college librarian at Fredonia by day, Dr. Besemer used her free time to research how people evaluated products. She is a self-proclaimed early adopter of technology, loves design and is curious by nature. When Dr. Besemer retired from library sciences, she leveraged her love for products and decades of product research to begin her second career as a product consultant. Dr. Besemer founded ideafusion, a consulting company which works with organizations to evaluate and improve their products using her online assessment measure, the Creative Product Semantic Scale (CPSS).

The CPSS is based on two decades of research and has been proven to be a reliable and valid instrument to measure a product’s novelty, resolution and style. The CPSS can be used to evaluate an idea, proposal, process, prototype, or tangible product. One of the benefits of using CPSS is that it creates a common language for evaluation. The CPSS has been used to help businesses in testing marketability, for designing new products, for improving products and enhancing advertisements. 

Dr. Besemer’s published works include:

Besemer, S. P. (1998). Creative product analysis matrix: Testing the model structure and a comparison among products – Three novel chairs. Creativity Research Journal, 11, 333-346.

Besemer, S. P. (2000). To buy or not to buy: Predicting the willingness to buy from creative product variables. Korean Journal of Thinking & Problem Solving 10 (2), 5-18.

Besemer, S., & O’Quin, K. (1986). Analyzing creative products: Refinement and test of a judging instrument. Journal of Creative Behavior, 20, 115-126.

Besemer, S. P., & O’Quin, K. (1999). Confirming the three-factor creative product analysis matrix model in an American sample. Creativity Research Journal, 12, 287-296.

Besemer, S. P., & Treffinger, D. J. (1981). Analysis of creative products: Review and synthesis. Journal of Creative Behavior, 15, 158-178.

Besemer, S. P. (2006). Creating products in the age of design. How to improve your new product ideas! Stillwater, OK. New Forums Press, Inc.

O’Quin, K., & Besemer, S. P. (2006). Using the creative product semantic scale a s a metric for results-oriented business. Creativity and Innovation Management, 15, 34-43.