What is it about?
Throughout history the subject of innovation has been thought of, conceived, defined, interpreted and understood in different ways. It is important to examine this subject to ask the question what is innovation? This chapter looks at the subject of innovation and tries to provide a background and starting point to understand this subject. The chapter starts with a brief history of innovation and how it has developed through time. It then looks at a range of definitions that have been put forward by writers, academics and thinkers of innovation. These definitions have been obtained from the wealth of literature written about the subject. Drawing from the definitions of innovation that have been discussed the author develops a composite definition of innovation and this is presented in the chapter. From this composite definition key components such as the creative process and academic models of creativity are assessed and analyzed. The practical application of innovation is then examined in this chapter. This is undertaken by highlighting and assessing two academic research studies that were carried out using Social Housing Providers (SHP) in England as the organizations to research the application of innovation. The studies looked at the application of innovation on the practical operations of the SHPs within the research through a two processes, Firstly, a two-dimensional typology of social innovation they had identified innovation being applied to new services and improvements to existing services. Secondly through a classification system. The chapter concludes by bringing together the earlier discussion regarding innovation and the findings from the two studies regarding the application of innovation to practical operations within organizations. The subject of innovation has been portrayed through multiple definitions and academic models as being a process which itself develops and can be applied within organizations. It can be identified with the creation of a new product or service or an improvement of an existing product or service. There is considerable scope for further research relating to innovation and its application to processes within organizations.
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Why is it important?
This work contributes to the body of knowledge regarding innovation.
Perspectives
Writing this article was a great pleasure as it leads us to rare situations in most African countries
Mr. Julius Kwasi Ofori
Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
This was an opportunity to look at the concept of innovation and to gain an insight into its application within the professional sector in which I work, which is social housing.
Dr Simon Peter Taylor
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: New Horizons in Education and Social Studies Vol. 4, October 2020, Sciencedomain International,
DOI: 10.9734/bpi/nhess/v4.
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