Hi Rosan,
The first definition, from the esa website, appears to cover a fairly large part of all activities in middle and top management of any organization. Practically any change with the purpose of improving the customer experience or increasing the profit, successful or not, falls within. For instance changing from a bespoke financial system to SAP, in order to lower operational costs would qualify, even if the actual cost increases. Few scholars would, however, categorize this as "innovation".
There are no exact, agreed definition in the field. But most focus on the successful introduction to a market of something new. "New" then in meaning of being previously not used in any larger degree on that market. The "newity" is what you bring up in the discussion on radicality. Some give the example of the internet as a radical innovation as it has dramatically changed a lot of peoples and organizations lives. Some argue that the internet is a 30 year incremental innovation of a series of technologies, products and business models. The level of radicality may need to consider from which stakeholder perspective it is being measured.
You may also note that Schumpeter included the concept of "creative destruction", that an innovation will also destroy other products, companies and/or competencies. The level of creative destruction can also be considered when categorizing developments as innovative or not. Apple iPhone vs Nokia could be an example of a high level of creative destruction. Nokia's owners has lots billions of dollars and thousands of people has lost their jobs in Finland because of Apple's innovation.
You may expect difficulties in your communication with other researchers if adopting the esa definition. If you do, be clear about your definition.
B.R
Lars
Ps I am not endorsing Apple products or stand to benefit in anyway from their success. They are just well known, extremely successful innovation company selling products in well-know categories.
Lyytinen and Rose = Internet is a radical innovation
Oxford handbook = Internet is an incremental innovation
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12 mar 2012 kl. 12:15 skrev Rosan Chow:
Thanks to your replies. I would like to sort out the 'adjectives' used to describe/differentiate different kinds of innovation.
To begin with, I use the definition of innovation from
http://www.esa.doc.gov/sites/default/files/reports/documents/innovation_measurement_01-08.pdf
"The design, invention, development and/or implementation of new or altered products, services, processes, systems, organizational structures, or business models for the purpose of creating new value for customers and financial returns for the firm."
I don't know if Christensen or you use the same definition, but I suppose, his or yours will not deviate too much from it and the essential is: create something new to bring socio-economic value.
For Christensen (speaking in the context of competition among firms): there are two types of innovation: Sustaining and Disruptive. Among the Disruptive, there are the Low-End and New-Market.
For Don & Roberto Verganti (speaking in the context of product development???): there are two types of innovation: Incremental and Radical. I wonder if Don cares to say more about how he defines these and how these relate to Christensen's. I am a bit confused. For example, I would have thought that both the incrementally new and radically new can be both sustaining and disruptive. But Don in his previous post seemed to be suggesting that only the radically new could be disruptive.
Rosan
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