Here are eight formal definitions of innovation from various sources (I haven't included the page numbers here):
1. " . . . introducing new commodities or qualitatively better versions of existing ones; finding new markets; new methods of production and distribution; or new sources of production for existing commodities; or introducing new forms of economic organization." (Schumpeter, 1942)
2. "An innovation is an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption." (Rogers, 1995)
3. "The intersection of invention and insight, leading to the creation of economic value." (U.S. National Innovation Initiative, 2005)
4. "An innovation is anything new that is actually used (enters the market place) - whether major or minor." (von Hippel, 2005)
5. "The adoption of an internally generated or purchased device, system, policy, program, process, product, or service that is new to the adopting organization." (Damanpour, 1991)
6. "Creating new and better ways of doing things that your customers value and that create value for your shareholders." (George et al., 2005)
7. "A new way of doing things . . . that is commercialized." (Porter, 1990)
8. "The successful exploitation of new ideas." (U.K. Department of Trade and Industry, 2003)
"I never could believe that Providence had sent a few men into the world, ready booted and spurred to ride, and millions ready saddled and bridled to be ridden."
- Richard Rumbold (1685)
To be perfectly honest, I think the theory of innovation is quite well developed in 2008. What is often missing is the will. What do you think, is there anything that we still don't know about innovation? What areas need further exploration?
Each individual human being possesses a unique, highly
ReplyDeletedeveloped, and sensitive perception of variety. Thus
aware, man is endowed with a natural capability for enact-
ing internal mental and external physical selectivity.
Quantitative and qualitative choice-making thus lends
itself as the superior basis of an active intelligence.
Human is earth's Choicemaker. His title describes
his definitive and typifying characteristic. Recall
that his other features are but vehicles of experi-
ence intent on the development of perceptive
awareness and the following acts of decision and
choice. Note that the products of man cannot define
him for they are the fruit of the discerning choice-
making process and include the cognition of self,
the utility of experience, the development of value-
measuring systems and language, and the accultur-
ation of civilization.
The arts and the sciences of man, as with his habits,
customs, and traditions, are the creative harvest of
his perceptive and selective powers. Creativity, the
creative process, is a choice-making process. His
articles, constructs, and commodities, however
marvelous to behold, deserve neither awe nor idol-
atry, for man, not his contrivance, is earth's own
highest expression of the creative process.
Human is earth's Choicemaker. The sublime and
significant act of choosing is, itself, the Archimedean
fulcrum upon which man levers and redirects the
forces of cause and effect to an elected level of qual-
ity and diversity. Further, it orients him toward a
natural environmental opportunity, freedom, and
bestows earth's title, The Choicemaker, on his
singular and plural brow.
- from
The Season of GenerationChoicemaker