The most significant source of the emergence and maintenance of competitive advantages of the enterprise is the use of updated scientific and technical products, which are the result of scientific, engineering, technological and intellectual activities of leading specialists. High competitiveness provides opportunities to earn profits sufficient to interest investors for further cooperation, which will ensure stable development of the enterprise. Thus, under the conditions of a dynamic competitive environment, the introduction of innovations is a necessary condition for maintaining high competitive positions of the enterprise. Based on the theory of "innovative development" developed by J. Schumpeter, the main emphasis in the article is on the need to introduce innovations into the production process, as an integral component of ensuring competitiveness on the market of the business entity. Thus, the modern market needs the active development of innovations materialized in updated technologies, products, organizational and management solutions. Innovative activity has several specific features: increased risk, unpredictability of results, delayed effectiveness (longterm nature of obtaining results), and at the same time, the potential for obtaining high profits. The formation of the company's innovative potential, as well as its implementation, is determined, to a greater extent, by the continuous interaction of a complex of factors and conditions that accelerate the innovation process, from the results of scientific research to the introduction of innovative technology, or the mass release of innovative products. The article explores such important categories as "innovation", "novation", "discovery", "invention" and "innovation" and outlines the clear differences between them. Different approaches of scientists to the category "innovative potential" are characterized. The choice of the most optimal method of assessing the innovation potential is of great importance, since such an indicator demonstrates the readiness of the enterprise to create an innovative product in the form of a scientific and technical sample and its use in practice, and also helps to assess how much the implementation of the innovation is economically justified. The methods of assessment of innovation potential proposed by various scientists, which are most widely used in practice, are considered.
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