Innovation Processes in the Social Space of the Organization

Schumpeter's concept of innovation was the starting point for further study, reflections and analyses on the importance of innovation in the economy. Nowadays, research into innovation captures several significant aspects of innovation: it includes both internally conceived and externally adopted innovation (production or adoption); innovation is stressed as more than a creative process, by including application (exploitation); intended (value-added) benefits are highlighted at one or more levels of analysis; the possibility that innovation may refer to the relative, as opposed to absolute, novelty of an innovation is assumed (an innovation may be common practice in some organizations but it would still be considered as such if it is new to the unit under research); and attention is drawn to the two roles of innovation (a process and an outcome). The creation and management of innovation has many dimensions that spread to all levels and dimensions of the organisation. The conditions that lead to innovation are a combination of processes in an organisation that result from internal and external dynamics. Innovation is not only an economic mechanism or a technical process. It is primarily a social phenomenon, the result of various interactions and relationships between individuals; to be implemented, it must obtain public approval as it changes paradigms, both in ways of thinking, production, organization and management, as well as in consumption. The process of innovation is the implementation of innovation in the social system of organization that has specific conditions both at the organizational level (eg: organisational culture or structure), group level (including the leadership style) and individual level (including creativity, knowledge, competencies, personality, and learning). Innovation management at various levels of the organization, the effective harmonization of innovation process management and innovation management from different levels of decision-making will create a synergy effect. It is therefore necessary to take into account the complexity of the research subject and include the actual problems resulting from the needs of multi-level innovation management and respect for the diversity of its conditions in the research. The issues addressed in this book are: - identifying key trends in the theory and practice of innovation management - defining key ontological beings and their use in innovation management - presenting the new dimensions of innovation management as seen through the eyes of the international authors of individual chapters - the possibility of applying solutions to problems addressed in this monograph The editors and authors hope that the presented combination of theory and practice will satisfy the needs of readers, in particular managers of modern companies, business consultants and researchers.