The Essence of Innovation and Innovation Management

Abstract

The essence of innovation is understood and defined in different ways. This chapter explains the concept of innovation in narrow and broad terms, as well as in material and process-related terms. The consequence of the ambiguous understanding of the essence of innovation is the multiplicity of its classifications. The chapter presents different classifications of innovation. The key process in a company that enables creation, development, and commercialization of innovation is innovation management. The chapter notes that innovation management can be considered from a functional or an attribute standpoint and an understanding of it can be narrow or broad. Innovation is created in an innovation process, which the chapter discusses from three standpoints: that of the entire economy, an individual organization, and an individual innovation. The innovation process in a company can follow different patterns and models. An important part of the content of the chapter is the characteristics of individual innovation creation models with an indication of their evolution from closed to open models. The basis for the creation of innovation in an open model is cooperation between different actors. The chapter presents various potential collaboration strategies in open innovation, identified based on the external search breadth and depth, and on the origin of the partners and the form of collaboration with these partners that has been adopted. Additionally, due to the role of knowledge management in open innovation, the chapter identifies model strategies for knowledge management in open innovation.