The Oslo Manual for measuring innovation1 defines innovation as ‘the implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new marketing method, or a new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations’ and identifies four types of innovation: product innovation, process innovation, marketing innovation and organisational innovation.
- Product innovation: A good or service that is new or significantly improved. This includes significant improvements in technical specifications, components and materials, software in the product, user friendliness or other functional characteristics.
- Process innovation: A new or significantly improved production or delivery method. This includes significant changes in techniques, equipment and/or software.
- Marketing innovation: A new marketing method involving significant changes in product design or packaging, product placement, product promotion or pricing.
- Organisational innovation: A new organisational method in business practices, workplace organisation or external relations
Innovation goes far beyond R&D - It goes far beyond the confines of research labs to users, suppliers and consumers everywhere – in government, business and non-profit organisations, across borders, across sectors, and across institutions2.
Innovation is often interpreted and coincided on people’s perception with technology, especially high technology. This is not quite right. Innovation concerns every original idea that changes the way things are done so far. It can simply combine existing applications and technologies in an arbitrary way and at the lowest possible cost.
1 Oslo Manual (2005),‘Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data’, 3 rd Edition Oslo Manual, The Measurement of Scientific and Technological Activities, A joint publication of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and Eurostat, ISBN 92-64- 01308-3, doi: 10.1787/9789264013100-en.
2 [online], retreived at 15.09.2016 from: https://www.oecd.org/site/innovationstrategy/defininginnovation.htm