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What does Innovation mean - a term without a clear
definition
Anneli Stenberg
Abstract
The purpose with this paper is to identify what people associate with the word innovation and why they do that. This is interesting because the word innovation is relevant right now in the world we live in. It impacts both the world economy and the standard of living. It is a key to international competiveness and something companies have to deal with in the everyday life. To get a deeper understanding innovation is defined. Literature is searched to find out what is written about innovation and the association with it. The method used in this study is a qualitative approach. A survey with a total of five items has been sent out through the internet to get a width of the respondents. Results from the study found that the most used associations was growth, new thinking and creativity. Innovation can persist growth, the respondents on the survey was then on the right track. Creativity is also something that the respondent found close to innovation. Innovation is defined as something new and different and is creative work. Why people associate this with innovation can depend on the close link between the business world, entrepreneurship and innovation. People learn about innovation at work or in school and it is therefore relevant to learn about the business part of innovation. Innovation extends beyond the business world and it is therefore important to get a broader definition of innovation. People need to get a better understanding of the width of innovation to be able to associate innovation with the right things. Innovations is something that exists in our everyday life and does not only impact the world economy but our daily life as well.
Key words
Innovation, creativity, growth, association, profitability, innovatory and new thinking.
Author
Anneli Stenberg, Department of Business, economics and law, University of Halmstad, Halmstad Sweden.
Introduction
There is a growing importance of knowledge and innovation to economic growth and technological competitiveness in all fields and it is a strong concern for scientist, managers and for countries in its entirety. The universities, business sector and the public sector all play an important role in the development of innovation. The key to innovation development involves a close collaboration with science, financing and technology and this has developed a model called triple helix model. Innovation is now days a key ingredient to manage the global competitiveness and companies have to deal with the creation of new products and services (Farniha, Ferreira & Gouveia, 2016).
There are different factor that influence a customer´s decisions to either adopt an innovation or to reject it. This factors are following:
- Relative advantage
- Compatibility
- Risk Relative
An innovation has an advantage when it appears to be better the previous generation and has a high rate of adoption. An innovation also has a greater chance of getting adopted if it is compatible with people’s experiences and values. The younger generation is more willing to take risks in innovation and we can therefore expect more willingness in taking on risk with innovative technology (Søilen, Nerme, Stenström & Darefelt, 2013).
Literature review
What is innovation?
Innovation is a word that is derived from the Latin word innovare, this means “into new”. The simplest definition of innovations is doing something different. Innovation is a word that often is used in the business world and for companies this usually mean something risky, costly and time consuming (Costello & Prohaska, 2013). Innovation can also be explained as s new idea, product, device or novelty. It is a mind-set, a way of thinking beyond the present and into the future. Innovations is important for companies and when used well it can be a process, strategy and management technique (Kuczmarksi, 2003). Innovation can at a fundamental level be the process of generating and combining ideas to make a relationship between present accomplishments and past experiences to solve a future problem. This is often associated with technological feats and it play a critical role in the world economy (Baskaran & Mehta, 2016). Innovation is big in the business world and is sustainable to create value and be strong in the competitive environment. There is a link between innovation, jobs, profit and standard of living. A common way to associate innovation with is new products, materials, new process, new services and new
as a key component of growth because it creates new markets space and revenues on the way (Sardana, 2016).
According to Tienken (2013) innovation is a possible outcome from creativity. Creativity is something unique and new and creates innovation and entrepreneurship in countries. Innovations and creativity is similar in the way of new thinking (Tienken, 2013). Innovation is also associated to problem solving, it is either a solution to a new problem or a novel solution to an old problem. To be innovative is to think in problem- solving ways, to exploit new resources or use the existing resources in a more efficient way. To be problem-solving in nature often leads to innovation and new thinking (Huebner & Fitchel, 2015). Innovation and leadership has showed to be a successful combination when it comes to revenues for a business (Bock, Eisengerich, Sharapoy & George, 2015). Studies has found that innovation management may not only change an organization but also bring benefits to it and redefine the company with the spreading of new ideas. Leadership can effectively stimulate innovation and new thinking. Innovation management is though pretty new to the world and not that used yet (Vaccaro, Jansen, Van den Bosch & Volberda, 2012).
The way people learn about innovation and what it is often occurs at work or in school. In work people learn to practice and be innovative when it is an open debate, open and honest exchange of ideas. In higher education it is teach by showing and sharing new technology and let the students be open minded and open for debate (Cohn, 2008).
Method
This is a quantitative study to examine what people associate with innovation and why. To investigate this a questionnaire with a total of five items has been sent out. The survey was placed on the internet for a width of respondents. The items that was chosen for the survey was based on literature and scientific papers on the subject innovation. With regard to the literature association growth, leadership, profitably, life s, creativity, new thinking, knowledge, solutions, innovatory and problem solving was chosen as alternative answers for the questions. The population has been restricted to people that have and use Facebook. Facebook was used as a platform because it was a simple way to reach out to a large range of people. In total information has been gathered from a sample of two hundred respondents.
The method of sample is a simple random sample were the answers has the same chance of being chosen. The survey is anonymous and the extent of interference is therefore minimal. The study is descriptive and refers to describe what people associate with innovation and why they do that.
The reliability of the study can be considered at two different levels. First the reliability can be classed as high because it is easy for anyone at any time could ask the questions and get the same results in this population. On the other hand it is not certain that other researchers would have chosen the same questions to investigate the issue and it is therefore hard to say that the study has a high reliability. The validity of the study can be considered to be high because the variables that has been used is equivalent to the questions. A great deal of analysis units selected at random and it should therefore be possible to generalize the results.
The literature that have been used for this study was found on databases for scientific papers. The databases are Scopus, Web of science and Summon. To get relevant information key word as “innovation”, “association”, “innovation science”, “innovation in business” and “innovation management” has been used.
Results
The results from the survey shows that most of the populations relate innovation with growth, new thinking, creativity and something innovatory. A big part of the population also agrees that innovation is problem solving. When it comes to the question if innovation is important there is a greater dispersion.
The first statement in the survey was: “innovation is innovatory”. This statement was chosen because innovation is a word that comes from the Latin word innovare that means “into new” (Costello & Prohaska, 2013). The most definitions of innovation mention that it is something new and it is therefore important to know if the population also agrees to this. For this item I have used a five point Likert scale were the respondent could choose in between “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree”. In this way the respondent could choose a natural answer if they were uncertain.
Of the two hundred respondents sixty nine percent answered that they strongly agreed that innovation is innovatory. Twenty percent answered that they agreed. Nine percent
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
Strongly agree
Neither agree or disagree
Strongly disagree
PRECENT %
Innovation is innovatory
Innovation is innovatory
There was for hundred and ninety nine answers and of them approximate thirty six percent thought innovation is new thinking thirty four percent thought of creativity as innovation. Nine percent of knowledge and twenty of solution. One percent answered other and there it was seven people that said that innovation is something usable in the market.
The last item was a straight on question “what do you associate with innovation?” Here the respondents could choose between five alternatives, growth, leadership, profitability, life quality and other. The respondent could choose more than one answer and on other they could fill in an own word.
There was three hundred and forty nine answers and forty percent of the answers was growth. Twenty three percent answered profitability, eighteen percent on life quality and ten percent on leadership. Nine percent answered other and the alternatives there was, new thinking, change, technology and development.
Analysis
The literature mention a range of different definitions of the word innovation. The simplest one but still usable is the definition mentioned by Costello & Prohaska (2013) that innovation is doing something different. They also mention that the word innovation from the beginning is derived from the Latin word innovare which means into new. Another definition is that innovation is a mind-set, a way of thinking beyond the present and in to the future. This could either end up with a new idea, product, device or novelty
0
20
40
PERCENT OF TOTAL Knowledge New thinking Creativity Solutions Other
Innovation is...
0
20
40
60
Percent of total^ Growth^ Leadership^ Profability^ Life quality^ other Association
What do you associate innovation
with?
(Kuczmarksi, 2003). Three scientists, Baregheh, Rowley & Sambrook (2009) tried to come up with a complete and multi stage definition of innovation. There definition said that innovation is a multiple stage process where organizations transform ideas to new products, processes and services so they can stay competitive and somehow different themselves successfully in the market. Innovation is also described as technology for new markets, new products and to be able to identify new costumer groups. Innovation is then an activity for companies to use for solving problems (Fri, Pehrsson,& Søilen, 2013). The technological innovation is also defined as a new marker or service opportunity but for a technological based innovation that could lead to product success (Garcia & Calantone, 2002). These definitions are somehow connected to business or products. The question then will be if innovation simply only exist in the business world. There has been new studies that showed that innovation is a much broader concept. Innovation is to take initiative to new processes and events. It can also change in behaviour, personnel and approach. It is more than just establish an effective tool in business (Reiman & Dotger, 2008). Still the most definitions fined in the literature somehow has a connection to products, services, strategies or business overall.
The range of definitions somehow overlap but there is no clear and authoritative definition. Some scientist has pointed this as a problem. If there is no clear definition of innovation it can be hard to develop strategies to be innovative (Baregheh, Rowley & Sambrook, 2009). Innovation play a critical role in the world economy (Baskaran & Mehta, 2016) and it is therefore important that people know what innovation really is. There is a link between innovation and jobs, profit in companies and standard of living (Baregheh, Rowley & Sambrook, 2009). If people do not know what innovation really is and therefore also makes the “wrong” associations to innovation there might not be a development of innovation, which is important for our economy and way of living.
Then the question also is what people associate with innovation, is it the “right” things and is there really a right way of describing innovation? The literature mentions some associations to innovation that might could be seen as “right” but might depend on which definition they have used. Leenders & Dolfma (2016) mention that there is a link between product management and innovation. An association with innovation is new products that companies can create. They also mention the association to technology, that a product that nor really are new but uses new technology is range as an innovation to. This associations merged well with the definitions about innovation that has the business touch like Garcia & Calantones (2002) definition that technology innovation is a new market or service opportunity. In the survey that I sent out to two hundred respondents some of the respondent mentioned new products as an association to innovation. There was not many but it can depend on that it was not a given alternative to the items but they could write it in as “other”. It is therefore hard to know if the respondent should have chosen that if it
a new problem or a novel solution to an old problem. If you are problem solving in nature it often leads to innovation and new thinking. To be innovative means that you think in problem-solving ways, exploit new resources and use the already existing ones in a better way (Huebner & Fitchel, 2015). In the survey one statement that the respondents had to rank was innovation is problem-solving they could choose on a five point Likert scale between strongly agree, agree, neither agree or disagree, disagree and strongly disagree. Of the two hundred respondents thirty seven percent answered that they agreed and eleven percent answered that they strongly agreed. If you put them together approximate fifty percent answered that they agreed to that innovation is something problem-solving. Thirty two percent answered that they neither agreed nor disagreed which is a pretty big number. There was only twenty eight percent that disagreed or strongly disagreed to this statement. The respondents agrees to the association to problem-solving and might be because it had a closer connection to everyday life but it might be because they have a definition of innovation as problem solving. When there is no clear definition it might be easier to make personal preference to what innovation is and what you choose to associate it with.
Innovation and leadership has showed to be a successful combination especially when it comes to business and its revenues (Bock, Eisengerich, Sharapoy & George, 2015). Studies has found that leadership and innovation together can change an organization to its better by the spreading of new ideas that bring forward many benefits. Leadership can when used right, effectively stimulate innovation and new thinking (Vaccaro, Jansen, Van den Bosch & Volberda, 2012). Of the three hundred and forty nine answers I got from the survey on the item what do you associate with innovation? Only ten percent answered the alternative leadership. That is thirty five persons out of two hundred. That not everybody have that association might be because that innovation management is pretty new to the world. People have not yet had time to run into it or heard so much about it. Once again there is new creations of innovation all the time which makes it hard to define it.
There is one thing that people strongly agreed about in the survey and it was that innovation is something innovatory. That innovation is innovatory can be seen as obvious but it is perhaps the simplest and most accurate definition to innovation. Innovation means into new and is like mentioned before originated from the Latin word innovare. Out of two hundred respondents in the survey seventy percent strongly agreed to that innovation is innovatory and twenty percent agreed. This means that it is only ten percent that either did not know what to think or disagreed with the statement.
Other things that was mentioned in the survey as alternatives to associations to innovation was profitability, life quality, solutions and knowledge. It was twenty three percent out of the three hundred and forty nine answers I got that associated innovation with profitability. This association also has the connection to business and companies. According to Sardana (2016) innovation was one key component to growth because it creates revenues which in its turn creates profitability. It is an association that is in some
way is linked to other associations that have the connection to business. The association to life quality is connected to what Baregheh, Rowley & Sambrook (2009) meant with that the standard of living is improved when there is innovation in the world. New technology, products, etc. all contributes to a improved standard of living and in some way better life quality. The association to solution is according to Huebner & Fitchel a solution to a problem. It is the result of problem solving and problem solving is innovation. This could be a new solution to a new problem or a new solution to an old problem. That knowledge could be an association to innovation is relevant in the way that innovation is continuous learning and knowledge that is translated in to actions (Sardana, 2016). Innovation can be an activity when you solve a problem by combining knowledge (Fri, Pehrsson,& Søilen, 2013).
There is a couple of associations that people make to innovation, some more common than others. The most common associations is according to the survey new thinking or innovatory thinking, creativity, problem solving, profitability and growth. These association are consistent with the literature about innovation and makes sense. The definitions that exists of innovation on the other hand are not always consistent with the association that I found in the survey. This can depend on that there not really is a clear definition of innovation that cover all the areas that is needed. It can be hard to create a definition that cover all the areas because innovation is something that develops and change over time. Even if, Baregheh, Rowley & Sambrook (2009) tried to make a complete definition it is still not fulfilled. This definition only cover an organizational and business part of innovation.
Innovation is much broader to only fit in the business world, it is something that exists in the everyday life. Innovation is to take initiative to new processes and events which can occur also in daily life and not only in business (Reiman & Dotger, 2008). The problem with a non-consistent definition and the associations that often is connected to the business world is that people might not really know what innovation is. Innovations is broad and change over time. There is a need to make a definition that work in all areas and is adaptable. If it is possible to create this kind of definition people will get better knowledge about what innovation really mean and what they can associate it with.
Conclusions
It seems like there is not only one association with innovation. In the survey I found that people think that innovation is something innovatory and associate innovation with something new. Fifty percent also thought that innovation is problem-solving and associate that with innovation. Creativity, new thinking and growth also was associations that the respondents thought of when they heard innovation. This can be a result of the close link between the business world and innovation and therefore people connect
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