Make available to markets, governments and society. Innovation is related to, but not the same as, invention

Non-economic innovation

The classical definition of innovation being limited to the primary goal of generating profit for a firm, has led others to define other types of innovation such as: social innovation, sustainable or green innovation, and responsible innovation.

History

See also: Innovation economics

The word "innovation" once had a quite different meaning. The first full-length discussion about innovation is the account by the Greek philosopher and historian Xenophon (430–355 BCE). He viewed the concept to be multifaceted and connected it to political action. The word for innovation that he uses is 'Kainotomia' (innovation) and before him it had been used in two plays by Aristophanes. Plato discussed innovation in his book Laws and was not very fond of the concept. He was skeptical to it in both culture (dancing and art) and education (he did not believe in introducing new games and toys to the kids).^[24] Aristotle did not like organizational innovations as he believed that "All possible forms of organization have now been discovered. If another form of organization was really good it would have been discovered already (Politics II as cited by Benoît Godin 2015)

Before the 4th century in Rome, the words novitas and res nova / nova resmeant were used with either negative or positive judgment on the innovator. This concept meant renewing and this meaning was incorporated into the new word innovo in the centuries that followed. It was used in the Vulgate bible in spiritual as well as political contexts. It was also used in poetry and then mainly had spiritual connotations but was also connected to political, material and cultural aspects.

In Machiavelli's The Prince (1513), innovation is described in a political setting. It is portrayed as a strategy a Prince may employ in order to cope with a constantly changing world as well as the corruption within it. Here innovation is described as introducing change in government (new laws and institutions) in Machiavelli's later book The Discourses (1528) innovation is described as imitation, as a return to the original that has been corrupted by people and by time. Thus for Machiavelli Innovation came with positive connotations. This is however an exception in the description of innovation from the 16th century and onward. No innovator from the renaissance until the late 19th century ever thought of applying the word innovator upon themselves, it was a word used to attack enemies.

The word "innovation" once had an older, historical, and quite different meaning. From the 1400s^[through the 1600s, prior to early European settlement of the Americas from 1492, the concept of "innovation" was pejorative – the term was an early-modern synonym for "rebellion", "revolt" and "heresy". It was often associated with religion.  Kings and queens issued declarations against it and if you were very unlucky as the puritan Henry Burton, your ears could be chopped off if you were accused of innovating. In the 1800 it was the social reformers turn to be accused of innovating. People promoting capitalism saw Socialism as an innovation and spent a lot of energy working against it. For instance Goldwin Smith saw the spread of social innovations as an attack on money and banks. These social innovations were socialism, communism, nationalization, cooperative associations. Thus contrary to what many people believe, social innovation appeared much earlier than technological innovation.

In the 1900s the concept Innovation did not become popular until after the second world war. This is the point in time when people started to talk about technological product innovation and tie it to the idea of economic growth and competitive advantage.^[  Joseph Schumpeter (1883–1950) is often credited for being the one who made the term popular and he contributed greatly to the study of innovation economics, In business and in economics, innovation can become a catalyst for growth. With rapid advancements in transportation and communications over the past few decades, the old-world concepts of factor endowments and comparative advantage which focused on an area's unique inputs are outmoded for today's global economy. Schumpeter argued that industries must incessantly revolutionize the economic structure from within, that is innovate with better or more effective processes and products, as well as market distribution, such as the connection from the craft shop to factory. He famously asserted that "creative destruction is the essential fact about capitalism". Entrepreneurs continuously look for better ways to satisfy their consumer base with improved quality, durability, service and price which come to fruition in innovation with advanced technologies and organizational strategies.

A prime example of innovation involved the explosive boom of Silicon Valley startups out of the Stanford Industrial Park. In 1957, dissatisfied employees of Shockley Semiconductor, the company of Nobel laureate and co-inventor of the transistor William Shockley, left to form an independent firm, Fairchild Semiconductor. After several years, Fairchild developed into a formidable presence in the sector. Eventually, these founders left to start their own companies based on their own, unique, latest ideas, and then leading employees started their own firms. Over the next 20 years, this snowball process launched the momentous startup-company explosion of information-technology firms. Silicon Valley began as 65 new enterprises born out of Shockley's eight former employees.^[33] Since then, hubs of innovation have sprung up globally with similar metonyms, including Silicon Alley encompassing New York City.

Another example involves business incubators – a phenomenon nurtured by governments around the world, close to knowledge clusters (mostly research-based) like universities or other Government Excellence Centres – which aim primarily to channel generated knowledge to applied innovation outcomes in order to stimulate regional or national economic growth.^[34]

Process of innovation

One of the early models included only 3 basic phases for innovation. According to Utterback (1971), these phases were: 1) idea generation, 2) problem solving, and 3) implementation. By the time one completed phase 2, one had an invention, but until one got it to the point of having an economic impact, one didn't have an innovation. Diffusion wasn't considered a phase of innovation heavy. Focus at this point in time was on manufacturing.

All organizations can innovate, including for example hospitals, universities, and local governments.  The organization requires a proper structure in order to retain competitive advantage. Organizations can also improve profits and performance by providing work groups opportunities and resources to innovate, in addition to employee's core job tasks.^] It is necessary to create and nurture an environment of innovation. Executives and managers have been advised to break away from traditional ways of thinking and use change to their advantage.  The world of work is changing with the increase in the use of technology and both companies and businesses are becoming increasingly competitive. Companies will have to downsize or reengineer their operations to remain competitive. This will affect employment as businesses will be forced to reduce the number of people employed while accomplishing the same amount of work if not more

For instance, former Mayor Martin O’Malley pushed the City of Baltimore to use CitiStat, a performance-measurement data and management system that allows city officials to maintain statistics on several areas from crime trends to the conditions of potholes. This system aided in better evaluation of policies and procedures with accountability and efficiency in terms of time and money. In its first year, CitiStat saved the city $13.2 million.^[40] Even mass transit systems have innovated with hybrid bus fleets to real-time tracking at bus stands. In addition, the growing use of mobile data terminals in vehicles, that serve as communication hubs between vehicles and a control center, automatically send data on location, passenger counts, engine performance, mileage and other information. This tool helps to deliver and manage transportation systems.