Untitled - Ministerstwo Rozwoju Regionalnego

According to Robert U. Ayres, who points out the economic (commercial) aspect
of the issue, innovation should be understood as creativity in terms of developing
new products, new technological processes and the organisation of
new entities 9 . H.G. Barnett, referring to the above, stresses the question of originality
in defining innovation, a significant difference in comparison with existing
solutions, and emphasizes the role of innovation in economic changes 10 .
The theory of innovation is also discussed by many Polish economists. Special
attention should be drawn to the studies by M. Kalecki, who like many
other authors, believes that innovations involve more than just the technical
sphere. He defines innovations as inventions applied for the first time worldwide.
He considers innovation – and this should be underlined – to be the key
stimulus of economic development 11 . The view which assumes that novelty and
first application worldwide are the distinguishing features of innovation was
represented by, inter alia, Schumpeter, Drucker, and Solow.
Philip Kotler on the other hand states that innovations refer to any goods,
services or concepts that are perceived by someone as something new 12 .
Until the late 1970s, the term innovation was used to describe creative
changes in the social system, economic structure and the natural environment 13 .
Later, the paradigm of economic theories connected with evolving models of innovative
processes brought a shift from the linear to the integrated model.
Many classification systems of innovation appear in the literature of the subject,
providing grounds for research on innovative capacity of economies and
enterprises.
From the point of view of the economic sector in which they originate, or
the sphere of activity they affect, innovations can be divided into four basic
groups 14 :
– functional – satisfying new, earlier undisclosed social needs providing
new functions;
– product related – introducing new products, substituted for those currently
in use, as better fitted to the task;
– process related – introducing new production methods, which facilitate
manufacturing, reduce costs and improve the natural and work environment;
– structural/organisational – upgrading work and production organisation,
improving occupational safety and hygiene.
9 R. U. Ayres, Technological Protection and Piracy, "Economic Impact" 1987, no 1, p. 35.
10 H. G. Barnet, Innovation, the Basis of Cultural Change, McGraw-Hill Book Company, New York
1953, pp. 7-8.
11 M. Kalecki, Kapitalizm. Dynamika gospodarcza, Vol. 2, PWE, Warsaw 1980, p. 352.
12 Ph. Kotler, Marketing. Analiza, planowanie, wdra¿anie i kontrola, Gebetner&Ska, Warsaw 1994, p. 322.
13 E. Jantsch, Technological Planning and Social Futures with a foreword by Bertrand de Jouvenal, Associated
Business Programmes, London 1972, p. 30.
14 A. Pomykalski, Innowacje, Politechnika £ódzka, £ódŸ 2001, pp. 18 and on.
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