Innovation: Definitions

In 1934 Joseph Shumpeter defined economic innovation as:

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

(Schumpeter, J., “The Theory of Economic Development”, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Mass., 1934)

The OECD Oslo Manual (1995) provides a guideline on measuring technology-driven innovation.

It focuses on innovation sorted into
i.    products and
ii.    processes.
 

It says that innovations involve a series of
i.    scientific,
ii.    technological,
iii.    organizational,
iv.    financial and
v.    commercial activities.

It points out that nothing is an innovation until introduced to the marketplace..

SOURCE: Innovation Journalism Vol 1. No. 7, 8 Nov 04      Nordfors: The Role of Journalism in Innovation Systems