Innovation

Innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved idea, good, service, process or practice which is intended to be useful. Scholars who have studied innovation generally differentiate among four main types of innovation: product innovation, process innovation, organizational innovation, and marketing innovation.

Other definitions of innovation

Joseph Schumpeter defined economic innovation in 1934:

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: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

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The OECD defines Technological Innovation in the Oslo Manual from 1995:

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: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.

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Regis Cabral defines innovation as 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. Sources: Cabral, R. (1998) ‘Refining the Cabral-Dahab Science Park Management Paradigm’, Int. J. Technology Management, Vol. 16, pp. 813-818; Cabral, R. (2003) ‘Development, Science and’ in Heilbron, J. (ed.), The Oxford Companion to The History of Modern Science, Oxford University Press, New York, pp. 205-207.

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Amabile et al. (1996) defined innovation and its relation to creativity:

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:"All innovation begins with creative ideas?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).

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As like other researchers (e.g. Stein, 1974; Woodman, Sawyer, & Griffin, 1993) Amabile et al. define creativity as the production of novel and useful ideas in any domain (p.1155). Creativity is seen as the basis for innovation and so they define innovation as the successful implementation of creative ideas within an organization (p.1155)

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