FUTURING & INNOVATION: WHAT IS INNOVATION?

One could define Innovation as an idea, value, service, technology, method, or thing that is new to an individual, a family, a firm, a field, an industry, or a country (Jeryaraj & Sabhewal, 2014; Rogers, 1962; Rogers, 2010; Sáenz-Royo, Gracia-Lázaro, & Moreno, 2015). Based on this definition above an invention can be seen as an innovation, but not all innovations are inventions (Robertson, 1967).  Also, even though something may not be considered as an innovation by one entity, it can still be considered as innovative if adopted by a completely different entity (Newby, Nguyen, & Waring, 2014).

Innovation moving from one entity to another can be considered as Diffusion of innovation.  Diffusion of Innovation is a theory that is concerned with the why, what, how, and rate of innovation dissemination and adoption between entities, which are carried out through different communication channels over a period of time (Ahmed, Lakhani, Rafi, Rajkumar, & Ahmed, 2014; Bass, 1969; Robertson, 1967; Rohani & Hussin, 2015; Rogers, 1967; Rogers 2010).  However, there are possible forces that can act on an innovation that can influence the likelihood of the innovation success, for example financial, technological, cultural, economical, legal, ethical, temporal, social, global, national, local, etc.  Therefore, when viewing a new technology or innovation for the future, one must think critically about it and evaluate it from different forces/lenses.

Resources:

• Ahmed, S., Lakhani, N. A., Rafi, S. K., Rajkumar, & Ahmed, S. (2014). Diffusion of innovation model of new services offerings in universities of karachi.International Journal of Technology and Research, 2(2), 75-80.
• Bass, F. M. (1969). A new product growth for model consumer durables. Management science, 15(5), 215-227.
• Jeyaraj, A., & Sabherwal, R. (2014). The bass model of diffusion: Recommendations for use in information systems research and practice.JITTA : Journal of Information Technology Theory and Application, 15(1), 5-30.
• Newby, M., Nguyen, T.,H., & Waring, T.,S. (2014). Understanding customer relationship management technology adoption in small and medium-sized enterprises. Journalof Enterprise Information Management, 27(5), 541.
• Robertson, T. S. (1967). The process of innovation and the diffusion of innovation. The Journal of Marketing, 14-19.
• Rogers, E. M. (1962). Diffusion of innovations. (1st ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Rogers, E. M. (2010). Diffusion of innovations. (4st ed.). New York: Simon and Schuster.
• Rohani, M. B., & Hussin, A. R. C. (2015). An integrated theoretical framework for cloud computing adoption by universities technology transfer offices (TTOs).Journal of Theoretical and Applied Information Technology,79(3), 415-430.
• Sáenz-Royo, C., Gracia-Lázaro, C., & Moreno, Y. (2015). The role of the organization structure in the diffusion of innovations.PLoS One, 10(5). doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0126078