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Encyclopedia > Innovation
Look up Innovation in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The classic definitions of innovation include: ang pangit pangit mo! haha... Innovation may refer to one of the following. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Wiktionary (a portmanteau of wiki and dictionary) is a multilingual, Web-based project to create a free content dictionary, available in over 150 languages. ... Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ...

  1. the act of introducing something new: something newly introduced (The American Heritage Dictionary).
  2. the introduction of something new. (Merriam-Webster Online)
  3. a new idea, method or device. (Merriam-Webster Online)
  4. the successful exploitation of new ideas (Department of Trade and Industry, UK).
  5. change that creates a new dimension of performance Peter Drucker (Hesselbein, 2002)
  6. the process of making improvements by introducing something new [citation needed]

In economics, business and government policy,- something new - must be substantially different, not an insignificant change. In economics the change must increase value, customer value, or producer value. Innovations are intended to make someone better off, and the succession of many innovations grows the whole economy. The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (AHD) is an American dictionary of the English language published by Boston publisher Houghton-Mifflin, the first edition of which appeared in 1969. ... Merriam-Webster, originally known as the G. & C. Merriam Company of Springfield, Massachusetts, is a United States company that publishes reference books, especially dictionaries that are descendants of Noah Websters An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). ... The Department of Trade and Industry is a United Kingdom government department. ... Peter Ferdinand Drucker (November 19, 1909–November 11, 2005) was a writer, management consultant and university professor. ... Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... In economics, a business is a legally-recognized organizational entity existing within an economically free country designed to sell goods and/or services to consumers, usually in an effort to generate profit. ... Public policy is a course of action or inaction chosen by public authorities to address a problem. ...


The term innovation may refer to both radical and incremental changes to products, processes or services. The often unspoken goal of innovation is to solve a problem. Innovation is an important topic in the study of economics, business, technology, sociology, and engineering. Since innovation is also considered a major driver of the economy, the factors that lead to innovation are also considered to be critical to policy makers. Face-to-face trading interactions on the New York Stock Exchange trading floor. ... In economics, a business is a legally-recognized organizational entity existing within an economically free country designed to sell goods and/or services to consumers, usually in an effort to generate profit. ... By the mid 20th century humans had achieved a mastery of technology sufficient to leave the surface of the Earth for the first time and explore space. ... Sociology (from Latin: socius, companion; and the suffix -ology, the study of, from Greek λόγος, lógos, knowledge [1]) is the systematic and scientific study of society, including patterns of social relationships, social action, and culture[2]. Areas studied in sociology can range from the analysis of brief contacts between anonymous... Engineering is the discipline of acquiring and applying knowledge of design, analysis, and/or construction of works for practical purposes. ... Look up policy in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Contents

Introduction

In the organisational context, innovation may be linked to performance and growth through improvements in efficiency, productivity, quality, competitive positioning, market share, etc. All organisations can innovate, including for example hospitals, universities, and local governments.


While innovation typically adds value, innovation may also have a negative or destructive effect as new developments clear away or change old organisational forms and practices. Organisations that do not innovate effectively may be destroyed by those that do. Hence innovation typically involves risk. A key challenge in innovation is maintaining a balance between process and product innovations where process innovations tend to involve a business model which may develop shareholder satisfaction through improved efficiencies while product innovations develop customer support however at the risk of costly R&D that can erode shareholder returns.


Conceptualizing innovation

Innovation has been studied in a variety of contexts, including in relation to technology, commerce, social systems, economic development, and policy construction. There are, therefore, naturally a wide range of approaches to conceptualising innovation in the scholarly literature. See, e.g., Fagerberg et al. (2004).


Fortunately, however, a consistent theme may be identified: innovation is typically understood as the introduction of something new and useful, for example introducing new methods, techniques, or practices or new or altered products and services.


Distinguishing from Invention and other concepts

"An important distinction is normally made between invention and innovation. Invention is the first occurrence of an idea for a new product or process, while innovation is the first attempt to carry it out into practice" (Fagerberg, 2004: 4)


It is useful, when conceptualizing innovation, to consider whether other words suffice. Recent authors point out that invention - the creation of new tools or the novel compilation of existing tools - is often confused with innovation. Many product and service enhancements may fall more rigorously under the term improvement. Change and creativity are also words that may often be substituted for innovation. What, then, is innovation that makes it necessary to have a different word from these others, or is it a catch-all word, a loose synonym? Much of the current business literature blurs the concept of innovation with value creation, value extraction and operational execution. In this view, an innovation is not an innovation until someone successfully implements and makes money on an idea. Extracting the essential concept of innovation from these other closely linked notions is no easy thing. For the musical form, see Invention (music). ...


One emerging approach is to use these other notions as the constituent elements of innovation as an action: Innovation occurs when someone uses an invention - or uses existing tools in a new way - to change how the world works, how people organize themselves, and how they conduct their lives.


Note in this view inventions may be concepts, physical devices or any other set of things that facilitate an action. An innovation in this light occurs whether or not the act of innovating succeeds in generating value for its champions. Innovation is distinct from improvement in that it causes society to reorganize. It is distinct from problem solving and is perhaps more rigorously seen as new problem creation. And in this view, innovation applies whether the act generates positive or negative results.


Innovation in organizations

A convenient definition of innovation from an organizational perspective is given by Luecke and Katz (2003), who wrote:

"Innovation . . . is generally understood as the introduction of a new thing or method . . . Innovation is the embodiment, combination, or synthesis of knowledge in original, relevant, valued new products, processes, or services. (p. 2)"

Don Sheelen also placed innovation at the pinnacle of modern business stating that:

"Innovation is the lifeblood of any organization." Sheelan emphasizes that "without it, not only is their no growth, but, inevitably, a slow death."

Innovation typically involves creativity, but is not identical to it: innovation involves acting on the creative ideas to make some specific and tangible difference in the domain in which the innovation occurs. For example, Amabile et al (1996) propose: For other uses of Creativity, see Creativity (disambiguation). ...

"All innovation begins with creative ideas . . . We define innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization. In this view, creativity by individuals and teams is a starting point for innovation; the first is necessary but not sufficient condition for the second". (p. 1154-1155).

For innovation to occur, something more than the generation of a creative idea or insight is required: the insight must be put into action to make a genuine difference, resulting for example in new or altered business processes within the organisation, or changes in the products and services provided.


A further characterization of innovation is as an organizational or management process. For example, Davila et al (2006), write:

"Innovation, like many business functions, is a management process that requires specific tools, rules, and discipline." (p. xvii)

From this point of view the emphasis is moved from the introduction of specific novel and useful ideas to the general organizational processes and procedures for generating, considering, and acting on such insights leading to significant organizational improvements in terms of improved or new business products, services, or internal processes.


Through these varieties of viewpoints, creativity is typically seen as the basis for innovation, and innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization (c.f. Amabile et al 1996 p.1155). From this point of view, creativity may be displayed by individuals, but innovation occurs in the organizational context only.


It should be noted, however, that the term 'innovation' is used by many authors rather interchangeably with the term 'creativity' when discussing individual and organizational creative activity. As Davila et al (2006) comment,

"Often, in common parlance, the words creativity and innovation are used interchangeably. They shouldn't be, because while creativity implies coming up with ideas, it's the "bringing ideas to life" . . . that makes innovation the distinct undertaking it is."

The distinctions between creativity and innovation discussed above are by no means fixed or universal in the innovation literature. They are however observed by a considerable number of scholars in innovation studies.


Technological concepts of innovation

The OECD defines Technological Innovation in the Oslo Manual (1995) as: The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) is an international organization of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ...

Technological product and process (TPP) innovations comprise implemented technologically new products and processes and significant technological improvements in products and processes. A TPP innovation has been implemented if it has been introduced on the market (product innovation) or used within a production process (process innovation). TPP innovations involve a series of scientific, technological, organisational, financial and commercial activities. The TPP innovating firm is one that has implemented technologically new or significantly technologically improved products or processes during the period under review.

A 2005/6 MIT survey of innovation in technology found a number of characteristics common to innovators working in that field. Mapúa Institute of Technology (MIT, MapúaTech or simply Mapúa) is a private, non-sectarian, Filipino tertiary institute located in Intramuros, Manila. ...

  1. they are not troubled by the idea of failure,
  2. they realise that failure can be learned from and that the 'failed' technology can later be re-used for other purposes,
  3. they know innovation requires that one works in advanced areas where failure is a real possibility,
  4. innovators are curious about what is happening in a myriad of disciplines, not only their own specialism,
  5. innovators are open to third-party experiments with their products,
  6. they recognize that a useful innovation must be "robust", flexible and adaptable,
  7. innovators delight in spotting a need that we don't even know we harbor, and then fulfilling that need with a new innovation, and as such
  8. innovators like to make products that are immediately useful to their first users.

Fail and Phail redirect here. ...

Economic conceptions of innovation

Joseph Schumpeter defined economic innovation in 1934: Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an economist from Austria and an influential political scientist. ...

  1. The introduction of a new good —that is one with which consumers are not yet familiar—or of a new quality of a good.
  2. The introduction of a new method of production, which need by no means be founded upon a discovery scientifically new, and can also exist in a new way of handling a commodity commercially.
  3. The opening of a new market, that is a market into which the particular branch of manufacture of the country in question has not previously entered, whether or not this market has existed before.
  4. The conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-manufactured goods, again irrespective of whether this source already exists or whether it has first to be created.
  5. The carrying out of the new organization of any industry, like the creation of a monopoly position (for example through trustification) or the breaking up of a monopoly position

Schumpeter's focus on innovation is reflected in Neo-Schumpeterian economics.


Innovation is also studied by economists in a variety of contexts, for example in theories of entrepreneurship or in Paul Romer's New Growth Theory. Entrepreneurship is the practice of starting new organizations, particularly new businesses generally in response to identified opportunities. ... Paul Michael Romer is an economist and professor at Stanford University. ...


Transaction cost and network theory perspectives

According to Regis Cabral (1998, 2003): In economics and related disciplines, a transaction cost is a cost incurred in making an economic exchange. ... Network theory or diktyology is a branch of applied mathematics and physics, with the same general subject matter as graph theory. ...

"Innovation is a new element introduced in the network which changes, even if momentarily, the costs of transactions between at least two actors, elements or nodes, in the network."

Types of innovation

Scholars have identified at a variety of classifications for types innovations. Here is an unordered ad-hoc list of examples: Look up Ad hoc in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

Business model innovation
involves changing the way business is done in terms of capturing value .
Marketing innovation
is the development of new marketing methods with improvement in product design or packaging, product promotion or pricing.
Organizational innovation
involves the creation or alteration of business structures, practices, and models, and may therefore include process, marketing and business model innovation.
Process innovation
involves the implementation of a new or significantly improved production or delivery method.
Product innovation
involves the introduction of a new good or service that is new or substantially improved. This might include improvements in functional characteristics, technical abilities, ease of use, or any other dimension.
Service innovation
refers to service product innovation which might be, compared to goods product innovation or process innovation, relatively less involving technological advance but more interactive and information-intensive .
Supply chain innovation
where innovations occur in the sourcing of input products from suppliers and the delivery of output products to customers
Substantial innovation
introduces a different product or service within the same line, such as the movement of a candle company into marketing the electric lightbulb.
Financial innovation
through which new financial services and products are developed, by combining basic financial attributes (ownership, risk-sharing, liquidity, credit) in progressive innovative ways, as well as reactive exploration of borders and strength of tax law. Through a cycle of development, directive compliance is being sharpened on opportunities, so new financial services and products are continuously shaped and progressed to be adopted. The dynamic spectrum of financial innovation, where business processes, services and products are adapted and improved so new valuable chains emerge, therefore may be seen to involve most of the above mentioned types of innovation.
Incremental innovations
is a step forward along a technology trajectory, or from the known to the unknown, with little uncertainty about outcomes and success and is generally minor improvements made by those working day to day with existing methods and technology (both process and product), responding to short term goals. Most innovations are incremental innovations. A value-added business process, this involves making minor changes over time to sustain the growth of a company without making sweeping changes to product lines, services, or markets in which competition currently exists.
Breakthrough, disruptive or radical innovation
involves launching an entirely novel product or service rather than providing improved products & services along the same lines as currently. The uncertainty of breakthrough innovations means that seldom do companies achieve their breakthrough goals this way, but those times that breakthrough innovation does work, the rewards can be tremendous. Involves larger leaps of understanding, perhaps demanding a new way of seeing the whole problem, probably taking a much larger risk than many people involved are happy about. There is often considerable uncertainty about future outcomes. There may be considerable opposition to the proposal and questions about the ethics, practicality or cost of the proposal may be raised. People may question if this is, or is not, an advancement of a technology or process. Radical innovation involves considerable change in basic technologies and methods, created by those working outside mainstream industry and outside existing paradigms. Sometimes it is very hard to draw a line between both.
New technological systems (systemic innovations)
that may give rise to new industrial sectors, and induce major change across several branches of the economy.
Social innovation
a number of different definitions, but predominantly refers to either innovations that aim to meet a societal need or the social processes used to develop an innovation

The term business model describes a broad range of informal and formal models that are used by enterprises to represent various aspects of business, such as operational processes, organizational structures, and financial forecasts. ... For the magazine, see Marketing (magazine). ... A Business Process is a collection of interrelated tasks, which solve a particular issue. ... A supply chain, logistics network, or supply network is a coordinated system of organizations, people, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service in physical or virtual manner from supplier to customer. ... For other uses, see Candle (disambiguation). ... The incandescent light bulb uses a glowing wire filament heated to white-hot by electrical resistance, to generate light (a process known as thermal radiation). ... This page meets Wikipedias criteria for speedy deletion. ... Value added refers to the additional value created at a particular stage of production or through image and marketing. ... A Business Process is a collection of interrelated tasks, which solve a particular issue. ... Social Innovation refers to new strategies, concepts, ideas and organizations that meet social needs of all kinds - from working conditions and education to community development and health - and that extend and strengthen civil society. ...

Innovation and market outcome

Market outcome from innovation can be studied from different lenses. The industrial organizational approach of market characterization according to the degree of competitive pressure and the consequent modelling of firm behaviour often using sophisticated game theoretic tools, while permitting mathematical modelling, has shifted the ground away from an intuitive understanding of markets. The earlier visual framework in economics, of market demand and supply along price and quantity dimensions, has given way to powerful mathematical models which though intellectually satisfying has led policy makers and managers groping for more intuitive and less theoretical analyses to which they can relate to at a practical level. Non quantifiable variables find little place in these models, and when they do, mathematical gymnastics (such as the use of different demand elasticities for differentiated products) embrace many of these qualitative variables, but in an intuitively unsatisfactory way.


In the management (strategy) literature on the other hand, there is a vast array of relatively simple and intuitive models for both managers and consultants to choose from. Most of these models provide insights to the manager which help in crafting a strategic plan consistent with the desired aims. Indeed most strategy models are generally simple, wherein lie their virtue. In the process however, these models often fail to offer insights into situations beyond that for which they are designed, often due to the adoption of frameworks seldom analytical, seldom rigorous. The situational analyses of these models often tend to be descriptive and seldom robust and rarely present behavioural relationship between variables under study.


From an academic point of view, there is often a divorce between industrial organisation theory and strategic management models. While many economists view management models as being too simplistic, strategic management consultants perceive academic economists as being too theoretical, and the analytical tools that they devise as too complex for managers to understand.


Innovation literature while rich in typologies and descriptions of innovation dynamics is mostly technology focused. Most research on innovation has been devoted to the process (technological) of innovation, or has otherwise taken a how to (innovate) approach. The integrated innovation model of Soumodip Sarkar goes some way to providing the academic, the manager and the consultant an intuitive understanding of the innovation – market linkages in a simple yet rigorous framework in his book , Innovation, Market Archetypes and Outcome- An Integrated Framework.[1] This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ...


The integrated model presents a new framework for understanding firm and market dynamics, as it relates to innovation. The model is enriched by the different strands of literature - industrial organization, management and innovation. The integrated approach that allows the academic, the management consultant and the manager alike to understand where a product (or a single product firm) is located in an integrated innovation space, why it is so located and which then provides valuable clues as to what to do while designing strategy. The integration of the important determinant variables in one visual framework with a robust and an internally consistent theoretical basis is an important step towards devising comprehensive firm strategy. The integrated framework provides vital clues towards framing a what to guide for managers and consultants. Furthermore, the model permits metrics and consequently diagnostics of both the firm and the sector and this set of assessment tools provide a valuable guide for devising strategy.


Sources of innovation

There are several sources of innovation. In the linear model the traditionally recognized source is manufacturer innovation. This is where an agent (person or business) innovates in order to sell the innovation. Another source of innovation, only now becoming widely recognized, is end-user innovation. This is where an agent (person or company) develops an innovation for their own (personal or in-house) use because existing products do not meet their needs. Eric von Hippel has identified end-user innovation as, by far, the most important and critical in his classic book on the subject, Sources of Innovation.[2] Eric von Hippel (born August 27, 1941) is an economist and a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, specializing in the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. ...


Innovation by businesses is achieved in many ways, with much attention now given to formal research and development for "breakthrough innovations." But innovations may be developed by less formal on-the-job modifications of practice, through exchange and combination of professional experience and by many other routes. The more radical and revolutionary innovations tend to emerge from R&D, while more incremental innovations may emerge from practice - but there are many exceptions to each of these trends. The phrase research and development (also R and D or, more often, R&D), according to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development, refers to creative work undertaken on a systematic basis in order to increase the stock of knowledge, including knowledge of man, culture and society, and the use...


Regarding user innovation, rarely user innovators may become entrepreneurs, selling their product, or more often they may choose to trade their innovation in exchange for other innovations. Nowadays, they may also choose to freely reveal their innovations, using methods like open source. In such networks of innovation the creativity of the users or communities of users can further develop technologies and their use. User innovation refers to innovations developed by consumers and end users, rather than manufacturers. ... An entrepreneur (a loanword from French introduced and first defined by the Irish economist Richard Cantillon) is a person who operates a new enterprise or venture and assumes some accountability for the inherent risks. ... Open source refers to projects that are open to the public and which draw on other projects that are freely available to the general public. ... Ilkka Tuomi authored a book entitled Networks of Innovation: Change and Meaning in the age of the Internet. ...


Whether innovation is mainly supply-pushed (based on new technological possibilities) or demand-led (based on social needs and market requirements) has been a hotly debated topic. Similarly, what exactly drives innovation in organizations and economies remains an open question.


More recent theoretical work moves beyond this simple dualistic problem, and through empirical work shows that innovation does not just happen within the industrial supply-side, or as a result of the articulation of user demand, but though a complex processes that links many different players together - not only developers and users, but a wide variety of intermediary organistions such as consultancies, standards bodies etc. Work on social networks suggests that much of the most successful innovation occures at the boundaries of organisations and industries where the problems and needs of users, and the potential of technologies can be linked together in a creative process that challenges both.


Value of experimentation in innovation

When an innovative idea requires a new business model, or radically redesigns the delivery of value to focus on the customer, a real world experimentation approach increases the chances of market success. New business models and customer experiences can’t be tested through traditional market research methods. Pilot programs for new innovations set the path in stone too early thus increasing the costs of failure.


Stefan Thomke of Harvard Business School has written a definitive book on the importance of experimentation. Experimentation Matters argues that every company’s ability to innovate depends on a series of experiments [successful or not], that help create new products and services or improve old ones. That period between the earliest point in the design cycle and the final release should be filled with experimentation, failure, analysis, and yet another round of experimentation. “Lather, rinse, repeat,” Thomke says. Unfortunately, uncertainty often causes the most able innovators to bypass the experimental stage.


In his book, Thomke outlines six principles companies can follow to unlock their innovative potential.

  1. Anticipate and Exploit Early Information Through ‘Front-Loaded’ Innovation Processes
  2. Experiment Frequently but Do Not Overload Your Organization.
  3. Integrate New and Traditional Technologies to Unlock Performance.
  4. Organize for Rapid Experimentation.
  5. Fail Early and Often but Avoid ‘Mistakes’.
  6. Manage Projects as Experiments.[3]

Thomke further explores what would happen if the principles outlined above were used beyond the confines of the individual organization. For instance, in the state of Rhode Island, innovators are collaboratively leveraging the state's compact geography, economic and demographic diversity and close-knit networks to quickly and cost-effectively test new business models through a real-world experimentation lab. [citation needed]


Diffusion of innovations

Once innovation occurs, innovations may be spread from the innovator to other individuals and groups. This process has been studied extensively in the scholarly literature from a variety of viewpoints, most notably in Everett Rogers' classic book, The Diffusion of Innovations. However, this 'linear model' of innovation has been substantinally challenged by scholars in the last 20 years, and much research has shown that the simple invention-innovation-diffusion model does not do justice to the multilevel, non-linear processes that firms, entrepreneurs and users participate in to create successful and sustainable innovations. Image File history File links InnovationLifeCycle. ... The study of the diffusion of innovation is the study of how, why, and at what rate new ideas spread through cultures. ... Everett M. Rogers (1931 in Carroll, Iowa - Albuquerque, New Mexico, 21 October 2004), communications scholar, pioneer of diffusion of innovations theory, writer, and teacher. ...


Rogers proposed that the life cycle of innovations can be described using the ‘s-curve’ or diffusion curve. The s-curve maps growth of revenue or productivity against time. In the early stage of a particular innovation, growth is relatively slow as the new product establishes itself. At some point customers begin to demand and the product growth increases more rapidly. New incremental innovations or changes to the product allow growth to continue. Towards the end of its life cycle growth slows and may even begin to decline. In the later stages, no amount of new investment in that product will yield a normal rate of return. The study of the diffusion of innovation is the study of how, why, and at what rate new ideas spread through cultures. ...


The s-curve is derived from half of a normal distribution curve. There is an assumption that new products are likely to have "product Life". i.e. a start-up phase, a rapid increase in revenue and eventual decline. In fact the great majority of innovations never get off the bottom of the curve, and never produce normal returns.


Innovative companies will typically be working on new innovations that will eventually replace older ones. Successive s-curves will come along to replace older ones and continue to drive growth upwards. In the figure above the first curve shows a current technology. The second shows an emerging technology that current yields lower growth but will eventually overtake current technology and lead to even greater levels of growth. The length of life will depend on many factors. A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony: a classic example of emergence. ...


Goals of innovation

Programs of organizational innovation are typically tightly linked to organizational goals and objectives, to the business plan, and to market competitive positioning.


For example, one driver for innovation programs in corporations is to achieve growth objectives. As Davila et al (2006) note,

"Companies cannot grow through cost reduction and reengineering alone . . . Innovation is the key element in providing aggressive top-line growth, and for increasing bottom-line results" (p.6)

It is not surprising, therefore, that companies such as General Electric and Procter & Gamble have embraced the management of innovation enthusiastically, with the primary goal of driving growth and, consequently, improving shareholder value. “GE” redirects here. ... Procter & Gamble Co. ...


In general, business organisations spend a significant amount of their turnover on innovation i.e. making changes to their established products, processes and services. The amount of investment can vary from as low as a half a percent of turnover for organisations with a low rate of change to anything over twenty percent of turnover for organisations with a high rate of change.


The average investment across all types of organizations is four percent. For an organisation with a turnover of say one billion currency units, this represents an investment of forty million units. This budget will typically be spread across various functions including marketing, product design, information systems, manufacturing systems and quality assurance.


The investment may vary by industry and by market positioning.


One survey across a large number of manufacturing and services organisations found, ranked in decreasing order of popularity, that systematic programs of organizational innovation are most frequently driven by:

  1. Improved quality
  2. Creation of new markets
  3. Extension of the product range
  4. Reduced labour costs
  5. Improved production processes
  6. Reduced materials
  7. Reduced environmental damage
  8. Replacement of products/services
  9. Reduced energy consumption
  10. Conformance to regulations

These goals vary between improvements to products, processes and services and dispel a popular myth that innovation deals mainly with new product development. Most of the goals could apply to any organisation be it a manufacturing facility, marketing firm, hospital or local government.


Failure of innovation

Attaining goals must be the ultimate objective of the innovation process. Unfortunately, most innovation fails to meet organisational goals.


Figures vary considerably depending on the research. Some research quotes failure rates of fifty percent while other research quotes as high as ninety percent of innovation has no impact on organisational goals. One survey regarding product innovation quotes that out of three thousand ideas for new products, only one becomes a success in the marketplace. [citation needed] Failure is an inevitable part of the innovation process, and most successful organisations factor in an appropriate level of risk. Perhaps it is because all organisations experience failure that many choose not to monitor the level of failure very closely. The impact of failure goes beyond the simple loss of investment. Failure can also lead to loss of morale among employees, an increase in cynicism and even higher resistance to change in the future.


Innovations that fail are often potentially ‘good’ ideas but have been rejected or ‘shelved’ due to budgetary constraints, lack of skills or poor fit with current goals. Failures should be identified and screened out as early in the process as possible. Early screening avoids unsuitable ideas devouring scarce resources that are needed to progress more beneficial ones. Organizations can learn how to avoid failure when it is openly discussed and debated. The lessons learned from failure often reside longer in the organisational consciousness than lessons learned from success. While learning is important, high failure rates throughout the innovation process are wasteful and a threat to the organisation's future.


The causes of failure have been widely researched and can vary considerably. Some causes will be external to the organisation and outside its influence of control. Others will be internal and ultimately within the control of the organisation. Internal causes of failure can be divided into causes associated with the cultural infrastructure and causes associated with the innovation process itself. Failure in the cultural infrastructure varies between organisations but the following are common across all organisations at some stage in their life cycle (O'Sullivan, 2002):

  1. Poor Leadership
  2. Poor Organisation
  3. Poor Communication
  4. Poor Empowerment
  5. Poor Knowledge Management

Common causes of failure within the innovation process in most organisations can be distilled into five types:

  1. Poor goal definition
  2. Poor alignment of actions to goals
  3. Poor participation in teams
  4. Poor monitoring of results
  5. Poor communication and access to information

Effective goal definition requires that organisations state explicitly what their goals are in terms understandable to everyone involved in the innovation process. This often involves stating goals in a number of ways. Effective alignment of actions to goals should link explicit actions such as ideas and projects to specific goals. It also implies effective management of action portfolios. Participation in teams refers to the behaviour of individuals in and of teams, and each individual should have an explicitly allocated responsibility regarding their role in goals and actions and the payment and rewards systems that link them to goal attainment. Finally, effective monitoring of results requires the monitoring of all goals, actions and teams involved in the innovation process.


Innovation can fail if seen as an organisational process whose success stems from a mechanistic approach i.e. 'pull lever obtain result'. While 'driving' change has an emphasis on control, enforcement and structure it is only a partial truth in achieving innovation. Organisational gatekeepers frame the organisational environment that "Enables" innovation; however innovation is "Enacted" - recognised, developed, applied and adopted - through individuals.


Individuals are the 'atom' of the organisation close to the minutiae of daily activities. Within individuals gritty appreciation of the small detail combines with a sense of desired organisational objectives to deliver (and innovate for) a product/service offer.


From this perspective innovation succeeds from strategic structures that engage the individual to the organisation's benefit. Innovation pivots on intrinsically motivated individuals, within a supportive culture, informed by a broad sense of the future.


Innovation, implies change, and can be counter to an organisation's orthodoxy. Space for fair hearing of innovative ideas is required to balance the potential autoimmune exclusion that quells an infant innovative culture.


Measures of innovation

Individual and team-level assessment can be conducted by surveys and workshops. Business measures related to finances, processes, employees and customers in balanced scorecards can be viewed from the innovation perspective (e.g. new product revenue, time to market, customer and employee perception & satisfaction). Organizational capabilities can be evaluated through various evaluation frameworks e.g. efqm (European foundation for quality management) -model.


The OECD Oslo Manual from 1995 suggests standard guidelines on measuring technological product and process innovation. Some people consider the Oslo Manual complementary to the Frascati Manual from 1963. The new Oslo manual from 2005 takes a wider perspective to innovation, and includes marketing and organizational innovation. Other ways of measuring innovation have traditionally been expenditure, for example, investment in R&D (Research and Development) as percentage of GNP (Gross National Product). Whether this is a good measurement of Innovation has been widely discussed and the Oslo Manual has incorporated some of the critique against earlier methods of measuring. This being said, the traditional methods of measuring still inform many policy decisions. The EU Lisbon Strategy has set as a goal that their average expenditure on R&D should be 3 % of GNP. In June 1963, OECD experts met with the NESTI group (National Experts on Science and Technology Indicators) at the Villa Falcioneri in Frascati, Italy. ... The Lisbon Strategy, also known as the Lisbon Agenda or Lisbon Process, is an action and development plan for the European Union. ...


The Oslo Manual is focused on North America, Europe, and other rich economies. In 2001 for Latin America and the Caribbean countries it was created the Bogota Manual


Many scholars claim that there is a great bias towards the "science and technology mode" (S&T-mode or STI-mode), while the "learning by doing, using and interacting mode" (DUI-mode) is widely ignored. For an example, that means you can have the better high tech or software, but there are also crucial learning tasks important for innovation. But these measurements and research are rarely done.


Public awareness

Public awareness of innovation is an important part of the innovation process. This is further discussed in the emerging fields of innovation journalism and innovation communication. Innovation journalism is journalism dedicated to the coverage of innovation. ...


See also

Creative destruction, introduced in 1942 by the economist Joseph Schumpeter, describes the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation. ... Creative Problem Solving begins when knowledge and simply thinking about a problem fails. ... The term diffusion or diffusionism is used in cultural anthropology to describe the spread of cultural items — such as ideas, styles, religions, technologies, etc. ... Eco-innovation is a term used to describe products and processes that contribute to sustainable development. ... Edward de Bono (born May 19, 1933) is a Maltese psychologist and physician. ... A termite cathedral mound produced by a termite colony: a classic example of emergence. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ... Individual capital comprises inalienable or personal traits of persons, tied to their bodies and available only through their own free will, such as skill, creativity, enterprise, courage, capacity for moral example, non-communicable wisdom, invention or empathy, non-transferable personal trust and leadership. ... Induced innovation is a macroeconomic hypothesis first proposed in 1932 by Dr. J. R. Hicks in his work The Theory of Wages. ... The term ingenuity or applied ideas is used in the analysis of Thomas Homer-Dixon, building on that of Paul Michael Romer, to refer to what is usually called instructional capital. ... For the musical form, see Invention (music). ... Open Innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at Berkeley. ... For other uses, see Patent (disambiguation). ... The public domain comprises the body of all creative works and other knowledge—writing, artwork, music, science, inventions, and others—in which no person or organization has any proprietary interest. ... This article is about the concept. ... This is a chronological list of inventions. ... Toolkits for user innovation (the process) is a innovation process in which the user itself does part of the innovation within a set environment. ... TRIZ (IPA: ) is a romanized acronym for Russian “” () meaning Theory of solving inventive problems or Theory of inventive problem solving. It was developed by Soviet engineer and researcher Genrich Altshuller and his colleagues starting in 1946. ... User innovation refers to innovations developed by consumers and end users, rather than manufacturers. ... Value networks (value webs), are the human and technical resources in a business that work together to form relationships and add value to a product or service. ...

References

  1. ^ Sarkar, Soumodip (2007). Innovation, Market Archetypes and Outcome- An Integrated Framework. Springer Verlag. ISBN 379081945X. 
  2. ^ von Hippel, Eric (1988). The Sources of Innovation. Oxford University Press. ISBN 0-19-509422-0. 
  3. ^ Thomke, Stefan H. (2003) Experimentation Matters: Unlocking the Potential of New Technologies for Innovation. Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 1578517508. [1]
  • Amabile, Teresa (1996). Creativity in Context. New York: Westview Press. 
  • Amabile, Teresa; Regina Conti, Heather Coon, et al. (October 1996). "Assessing the work environment for creativity". Academy of Management Journal 39 (5): 1154-1184. 
  • Barras, R. (1984). "Towards a theory of innovation in services". Research Policy 15: 161-73. 
  • Cabral, Regis (2003). "Development, Science and", in Heilbron, J.: The Oxford Companion to The History of Modern Science. New York: Oxford University Press, 205-207. 
  • Cabral, Regis (1998). "Refining the Cabral-Dahab Science Park Management Paradigm". Int. J. Technology Management 16 (8): 813-818. doi:10.1504/IJTM.1998.002694. .
  • Chakravorti, Bhaskar (2003). The Slow Pace of Fast Change: Bringing Innovations to Market in a Connected World. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. 
  • Chesbrough, Henry William (2003). Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.. ISBN 1-57851-837-7. 
  • Christensen, Clayton M. (1997). The Innovator's Dilemma. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 0-06-052199-6. 
  • Davila, Tony; Marc J. Epstein and Robert Shelton (2006). Making Innovation Work: How to Manage It, Measure It, and Profit from It. Upper Saddle River: Wharton School Publishing. ISBN 0-13-149786-3. 
  • Dosi, Giovanni (1982). "Technological paradigms and technological trajectories". Research Policy 11 (3). .
  • Ettlie, John (2006). Managing Innovation, Second Edition. Butterworth-Heineman, an imprint of Elsevier. ISBN 0-7506-7895-X. 
  • Evangelista, Rinaldo (2000). "Sectoral patterns of technological change in services, economics of innovation". Economics of Innovation and New Technology 9: 183-221. 
  • Fagerberg, Jan (2004). "Innovation: A Guide to the Literature", in Fagerberg, Jan, David C. Mowery and Richard R. Nelson: The Oxford Handbook of Innovations. Oxford University Press, 1-26. ISBN 0-19-926455-4. 
  • Freeman, Chris (1984). "Prometheus Unbound". Futures 16 (5): 494-507.. 
  • (2002) in Hesselbein, Frances, Marshall Goldsmith, and Iain Sommerville: Leading for Innovation: And organizing for results. Jossey-Bass. ISBN 0-7879-5359-8. 
  • Hitcher, Waldo (2006). Innovation Paradigm Replaced. Wiley. 
  • Luecke, Richard; Ralph Katz (2003). Managing Creativity and Innovation. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN 1-59139-112-1. 
  • Mansfield, Edwin (1985). "How Rapidly Does New Industrial Technology Leak Out?". Journal of Industrial Economics 34 (2): 217–223.. 
  • Miles, Ian (2000). "Services Innovation: Coming of Age in the Knowledge Based Economy". International Journal of Innovation Management 14 (4): 371-389.. 
  • Miles, Ian (2004). "Innovation in Services", in Fagerberg, Jan, David C. Mowery and Richard R. Nelson: The Oxford Handbook of Innovations. Oxford University Press, 433-458. ISBN 0-19-926455-4. 
  • Nelson, Richard; Winter, S (1977). "In search of a useful theory of Innovation". Research Policy 6 (1): 36-76. 
  • Nordfors, David (November 2004). "The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems" (pdf). Innovation Journalism 1 (7). ISSN 1549-9049. 
  • OECD The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities. Proposed Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Technological Innovation Data. Oslo Manual. 2nd edition, DSTI, OECD / European Commission Eurostat, Paris 31 Dec 1995.
  • O'Sullivan, David (2002). "Framework for Managing Development in the Networked Organisations". Journal of Computers in Industry 47 (1): 77-88. Elsevier Science Publishers B. V.. ISSN 0166-3615. 
  • Rogers, Everett M. (1962). Diffusion of Innovation. New York, NY: Free Press. 
  • Rosenburgh, Nathan (1975). Perspectives on Technology. Cambridge, London and N.Y.: Cambridge University Press. 
  • Schumpeter, Joseph (1934). The Theory of Economic Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. 
  • Sapprasert, Koson (2007). "The impact of ICT on the growth of the service industries". TIK working papers on Innovation Studies 20070531. 
  • Scotchmer, Suzanne (2004). Innovation and Incentives. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 
  • Silverstein, David; Neil DeCarlo and Michael Slocum (2005). INsourcing Innovation: How to Transform Business as Usual into Business as Exceptional. Longmont, CO: Breakthrough Performance Press. ISBN 0-9769010-0-5. 
  • Sloane, Paul (2003). The Leader's Guide to Lateral Thinking Skills. Kogan Page. 
  • Stein, Morris (1974). Stimulating creativity. New York: Academic Press. 
  • Utterback, James M.; Fernando F. Suarez. (1993). "Innovation, Competition, and Industry Structure". Research Policy 22 (1): 1–21. 
  • von Hippel, Eric (2005). Democratizing Innovation. MIT Press. ISBN 0-262-22074-1. 
  • Woodman, Richard .W.; John E. Sawyer, Ricky W. Griffin (1993). "Toward a theory of organizational creativity". Academy of Management Review'' 18 (2): 293-321. 
  • Wolpert, John (2002). "Breaking Out of the Innovation Box". Harvard Business Review August. 

This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... Eric von Hippel (born August 27, 1941) is an economist and a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, specializing in the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. ... A digital object identifier (or DOI) is a standard for persistently identifying a piece of intellectual property on a digital network and associating it with related data, the metadata, in a structured extensible way. ... Clayton M. Christensen (born April 6, 1952 in Salt Lake City, Utah) is the Robert and Jane Cizik Professor of Business Administration at the Harvard Business School, with a joint appointment in the Technology & Operations Management and General Management faculty groups. ... It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into Giovanni Dosi. ... Christopher Freeman is an English economist, the founder and first director of SPRU Science and Technology Policy Research at the University of Sussex, and one of the most eminent modern Kondratieff wave/business cycle theorists and neo-Schumpeterians. ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ... ISSN, or International Standard Serial Number, is the unique eight-digit number applied to a periodical publication including electronic serials. ... Everett M. Rogers (1931 in Carroll, Iowa - Albuquerque, New Mexico, 21 October 2004), communications scholar, pioneer of diffusion of innovations theory, writer, and teacher. ... Everett M. Rogers (1931 in Carroll, Iowa - Albuquerque, New Mexico, 21 October 2004), communications scholar, pioneer of diffusion of innovations theory, writer, and teacher. ... Joseph Schumpeter Joseph Alois Schumpeter (February 8, 1883 – January 8, 1950) was an economist from Austria and an influential political scientist. ... Eric von Hippel (born August 27, 1941) is an economist and a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, specializing in the nature and economics of distributed and open innovation. ...

Innovation Links

Manchester Institute of Innovation Research is a research centre at the University of Manchester, Manchester, UK. It incorporates the well-known centres PREST and CRIC [1], and establishes an unparalleled grouping of researchers on technology management, innovation policy, Foresight, and related topics. ... The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), (in French: Organisation de coopération et de développement économiques; OCDE) is an international organisation of those developed countries that accept the principles of representative democracy and a free market economy. ... The Innovation Unit is a not-for-profit organisation. ... Berlaymont, the Commissions seat The European Commission (formally the Commission of the European Communities) is the executive branch of the European Union. ...

External links

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