Definition of Innovation

“Innovation is the generation, acceptance and implementation of new ideas, processes, products or services.” by Thompson, Victor A. 1965. Bureaucracy and innovation. Administrative Science Quarterly 10: 1–20.

“Innovation is the effective application of processes and products new to the organization and designed to benefit it and its stakeholders.”  by West, Michael A., and Neil R. Anderson. 1996. Innovation in top management teams. Journal of Applied Psychology 81: 680–93.

“Innovation is the realization in practice of any new, novel, and useful products, problem-solving idea, or methods of production for firms “to gain a competitive edge in order to survive and grow.” by Grønhaug and Kaufman, 1988 Grønhaug K., Kaufman G.Innovation: A Cross-Disciplinary Perspective. Norwegian University Press (1988)

“Innovation is conceived as a means of changing an organization, either as a response to changes in the external environment or as a pre-emptive action to influence the environment.”  by Damanpour, F. (1996). Organizational complexity and innovation: Developing and testing multiple contingency models. Management Science 42: 693–716.

From the descriptions above we can interpret that Innovation is the process of transforming new ideas into widely adopted or commercialized products, services, solutions and systems. If a great invention is not commercialized or adopted by the masses, it cannot be called innovation.

How Innovation is Defined

Our analysis of 40 different definitions of innovation has shown that innovation is related to anything “new.” More than half of the academic definitions of innovation included the word new while a significant majority referred to ideas, originality, process and marketplace.

Innovation and Creativity

Creativity and innovation are fundamentally different as innovation is more like marketing which is the process of taking an idea or invention and bringing it to the masses. Creativity is more like a personal skill often defined as “the ability to produce something novel and valuable as defined within a social context and it involves skills such as divergent thinking.” Source

Other Definitions of Innovation

” Innovation is the development and implementation of new ideas by people who over time engage in transactions with others within an institutional order.” Source

“Innovation is a change that makes previous products, services and/or processes ineffective.” Source

“Innovation is a new or significantly improved product (good or service) introduced to the market or the introduction within your enterprise of a new or significantly improved process. ” Source

“Innovation is a novel, inventive and usable solution, in either material or immaterial space: an end-product, process or method related to people’s practical needs and purposes.” Source

“Innovation is a process for introducing better and new unique solution to meet out the needs and requirement of existing markets.” Source

“Innovation is a process of conceiving or gathering new functionalities or characteristics for a product or production method.” Source

“Innovation is adoption and diffusion of a new idea, practice or product aiming at market success.” Source 

“Innovation is all technical, industrial and commercial stages leading to successful launch of new products and services into the market or the commercial utilization of new technical processes.”

“Innovation is an economic stimulus and the key factor of scientific and technological progress as well as international competitiveness.” Source

“Innovation is an idea, practice or object that is perceived as new by an individual or other unit of adoption.” Source

“Innovation is an output (product, device, theory, etc.) while creativity is seen as a process.” Source

“Innovation is creation and/ or adoption of a novel thing ( product, process, technology, etc.) for the organization that brings further value to the organization’s stakeholders.” Source

“Innovation is implementing new ideas that create value.” Source

“Innovation is making meaningful change to improve an organization’s processes and services and creating new value for the organization’s stakeholders.” Source

“Innovation is the commercialization of an enabling technology that provides the customer with new capability.” Source

“Innovation is the development and implementation of new ideas by people who over time engage in transactions with others within an institutional context.” Source

“Innovation is the economically successful introduction of a new technology or a new combination of existing technologies to create a drastic change in the value/price relationship offered to a customer or user.” Source

“Innovation is the first use of a new product, process or system in a commercial context.” Source

“Innovation is the generation and/or adoption of an idea or behaviour, relating to a product, service, device, system, policy or program, which is new to the adopting organization.” Source

“Innovation is the implementation of a new or significantly improved product or process, new marketing method, or new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization, or external relations.” OECD

“Innovation is the introduction of new method or procedure for an existing activity to raise productivity.” Source

“Innovation is the new ideas or solution proposals to the needs of humans which have not been fulfilled to increase their life standards and welfare.” Source

“Innovation is the new, sustainable and effective solution to pressing social problems in the society, and as a result of social innovation is created the social value.” Source

“Innovation is the process of moving an initial invention through research and development to the eventual market introduction.” Source

“Innovation is the process of ideation, evaluation, selection, development, and implementation of new or improved products, services, or programs.” Source

“Innovation is the process of moving an initial invention or creative idea through research and development to the eventual market introduction.” Source

“Innovation is the transfer of new ideas or the adaptation of new concepts, until the final stage of a product, process or service activity.” Source

“Innovation is the use of tools and techniques which extend human capability and which are new to an organization.” Source

“Innovation is the introduction of something new.” This something is further defined as “a new idea, method, or device.” Source

“Innovation is starting the use of new methods in social, cultural and administrative environments to adapt to changing conditions.” Source

“Innovation is the introduction of new things, ideas or ways of doing something.” Source

“Innovation is the process of making changes to something established by introducing something new.” Source

(Open) Innovation is the use of purposive inflows and outflows of knowledge to accelerate internal innovation, and expand the markets for external use of innovation, respectively. Source