Sources of Innovation

Sources of Innovation

1. Individuals as innovators:

a. Advantages: If an individual has a moderate understanding of a field, they might be able to produce the most creative solutions possible. Most individuals think in novel ways of their own, and can discriminate between important problems and unimportant ones. Individuals are more likely to work on things if they are genuinely interested in the work and enjoy it.

b. Disadvantage: If a person has little to no knowledge of a field, they’re unlikely to understand it well enough to contribute meaningfully to it. Also, if an individual knows a field to well, they may get stuck in existing logic and paradigms, preventing innovation.

2. Organizations:

a. Advantages: training programs, incentives and routines could help to amplify creativity. Firms can apply multiple areas of skill and knowledge to a project, to make it the most efficient as possible. Firms can look at demand, and see what people need, and use that data to create innovations and inventions that truly satisfies peoples’ needs.

b. Disadvantages: Those same programs, routings, and corporate structure could thwart innovation if implemented improperly. Groups can get stuck into one way of thinking (group-think) that doesn’t allow any new ideas or thoughts through, and there may not be enough diversity in a group for any breakout ideas.

3. Universities:

a. Advantages: Many universities encourage research that leads to useful innovations and information. The intellectual properties policies embrace both patentable and unpatentable innovations, and the university retains sole discretion to commercialize the product.

b. Disadvantages: The whole idea of group-think comes back into play. Also the fact that R&D budgets may be small, or may have to be dictated to certain fields of areas of study. This prevents truly free innovation.

4. Government

a. Advantages: Much of this research is invested/performed through science parks and incubators,...