Challenging The Innovation Paradigm

The book goes behind the innovation frenzy characterizing society today. It brings attention to the commercial waste, policy ineffectiveness and human suffering caused by the way corporations have executed and policy makers have regulated innovation. It emphasizes the unexploited opportunities of approaches that consider also long term and undesirable consequences of innovation.

Innovation is almost always seen as a "good thing". Challenging the Innovation Paradigm is a critical analysis of the innovation frenzy and contemporary innovation research. The one-sided focus on desirable effects of innovation misses many opportunities to reduce the undesirable consequences. Authors in this book show how systemic effects outside the innovating firms reduce the net benefits of innovation for individual employees, customers, as well as for society as a whole - also the innovators' own organizations. This book analyzes the dominant discourses that construct and reconstruct the assumptions and one-sidedness of contemporary innovation research (generally known as the pro-innovation bias) by focusing on consequences of innovation, distinguishing between intended and unintended as well as desirable and undesirable consequences. Contributors illustrate how both the discourses of innovation and the consequences of innovation permeate all levels of society: in policy discourse, in academic discourse, in research funding, in national innovation systems, in the financial sector, in organizational and work contexts, and in environmental pollution. The volume offers a critical, multidisciplinary, and multinational perspective on the topic, with authors from diverse academic fields examining and making comparisons between a variety of national contexts.

A leading innovation scholar explains the growing phenomenon and impact of free innovation, in which innovations developed by consumers and given away “for free.” In this book, Eric von Hippel, author of the influential Democratizing Innovation, integrates new theory and research findings into the framework of a “free innovation paradigm.” Free innovation, as he defines it, involves innovations developed by consumers who are self-rewarded for their efforts, and who give their designs away “for free.” It is an inherently simple grassroots innovation process, unencumbered by compensated transactions and intellectual property rights. Free innovation is already widespread in national economies and is steadily increasing in both scale and scope. Today, tens of millions of consumers are collectively spending tens of billions of dollars annually on innovation development. However, because free innovations are developed during consumers' unpaid, discretionary time and are given away rather than sold, their collective impact and value have until very recently been hidden from view. This has caused researchers, governments, and firms to focus too much on the Schumpeterian idea of innovation as a producer-dominated activity. Free innovation has both advantages and drawbacks. Because free innovators are self-rewarded by such factors as personal utility, learning, and fun, they often pioneer new areas before producers see commercial potential. At the same time, because they give away their innovations, free innovators generally have very little incentive to invest in diffusing what they create, which reduces the social value of their efforts. The best solution, von Hippel and his colleagues argue, is a division of labor between free innovators and producers, enabling each to do what they do best. The result will be both increased producer profits and increased social welfare—a gain for all.

Seminar paper from the year 2011 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: A, BI Norwegian Business School, course: Theories of Innovation, language: English, abstract: Through innovation process, organizations develop and implement the new ideas by engaging people over a period of time. Organizations to attain competitive advantage pursue innovation strategy and this pursuant make organizations interact with external environment alongside internal environment. Through interaction, organizations map their resources with the market demands and by doing so, organizations go through the renewal process. The management of innovation process is very critical element of organizational strategies and it bestows various challenges in front of organizations’ management. Organizations need to take care of these challenges to be successful in their pursuant of innovation.

In recent years, social innovation has experienced a steep career. Numerous national governments and large organisations like the OECD, the European Commission and UNESCO have adopted the term. Social innovation basically means that people adopt new social practices in order to meet social needs in a different or more effective way. Prominent examples of the past are the Red Cross and the social welfare state or, at present, the internet 2.0 transforming our communication and cooperation schemes, requiring new management concepts, even empowering social revolutions. The traditional concept of innovation as successful new technological products needs fundamental rethinking in a society marked by knowledge and services, leading to a new and enriched paradigm of innovation. There is multiple evidence that social innovation will become of growing importance not only concerning social integration, equal opportunities and dealing with the greenhouse effects but also with regard to preserving and expanding the innovative capacity of companies and societies. While political authorities stress the social facets of social innovation, this book also encompasses its societal and systemic dimensions, collecting the scientific expertise of renowned experts and scholars from all over the world. Based on the contributions of the first world-wide science convention on social innovation from September 2011 in Vienna, the book provides an overview of scientific approaches to this still relatively new field. Forewords by Agnès HUBERT (Member of the Bureau of European Policy Advisers (BEPA) of the European Commission) and Antonella Noya (Senior Policy Analyst at OECD, manager of the OECD LEED Forum on Social Innovations)

What is the profile to excel and lead in an open innovation environment, within and across organizational boundaries? What are the organizational ingredients and ways contributing to the creation of the right corporate open innovation environment and culture, within and across organizational boundaries? What is the role of organizational culture as a catalyst for adopting open innovation practices? What kinds of educational and training curricula for open innovation need to be developed and put in place? By unveiling the peculiarities of the dynamic interplay between the individual and organizational spectrums, this volume, seeks to provide relevant answers to these questions, among others. Readers are invited to embark on a fascinating and challenging journey towards one of the darkest of sides and mysteries of open innovation: the human element. Open Innovation: Unveiling the Power of the Human Element brings together the latest thinking from members of the academic community, industry leaders and practitioners, along with, policy-makers. By adopting a variety of research methods, this volume provides relevant up-to-speed but at the same time down-to-earth invaluable insights, foresights and solutions in relation to the role and the positioning of the human element within the participatory and connection-driven DNA of the open innovation paradigm.

Wicked World advocates the need to acknowledge the complex contexts in which managers, professionals and policymakers operate. Conventional tools do not serve us well in these new contexts and regularly aggravate the situation. This book offers a systemic perspective in exploring complex challenges and a sensemaking framework to deal with interconnected, persistent problems. Looking beyond the problem; seeking deeper patterns and linkages to other problems; realizing that cause and effect may not be obvious or close by; and that small changes can have major impacts...these are essential steps in operating in a wicked world. It is time for new perceptions and concepts that can support us. Systems and complexity theories are a starting point for this book. A comprehensive sensemaking framework can guide us in dealing with challenges such as digitalization and robotization impacting businesses, institutions, homes and society as a whole; social inequity and polarizing discourses; obesity, burn-out and cybersecurity. The first step is to become ‘systems savvy’ – Wicked World takes you on this journey.