Innovation Economics, Engineering and Management Handbook 1. Группа авторов

      Introduction

      General Presentation

      “Innovation is everything in the economy that is either not being done, or not being done again.” - Dimitri Uzunidis

      Agility, flexibility and rapid adaptation to change are becoming the key words for growth and development in our society. Finding new ways of doing things and creating something new out of what already exists remains essential when facing crises (economic, social and environmental). The ability to innovate is therefore the main condition for maintaining the competitiveness and performance of companies, regions and territories in a changing context. innovative activity has long been considered a driving force for “progress”, but its impact on the transformation of socio-economic systems is greater when a succession of profound changes are introduced on broader scales (organizational, social, environmental, political, behavioral, etc.). Achieving these transformations requires the mobilization of resources, information, knowledge and networks of specific actors in order to guide innovation efforts to respond to more global challenges such as reducing environmental impacts, building resilience, and improving health, safety and people’s well-being. Through what mechanisms and under what conditions does innovation enable more radical changes that progressively and sustainably reorient our modes of development? This is the overall question that this two-volume encyclopedic book answers, by mobilizing a set of interdisciplinary theories and concepts devoted to the study of innovation.

Innovation, in fact, consists of the design and marketing of new goods and technologies, the application of new working methods or the conquest of new markets. Today’s knowledge-based economy implies that innovation is the result of greater interaction between businesses, universities, public institutions, consumers and citizens. Innovation networks create new knowledge and contribute to the diffusion of new socio-economic and technological models, through new modes of production and distribution. Innovation results from technological, organizational and commercial changes.

      How do organizations design and manage innovation processes? What strategies and management tools do they apply for the concrete implementation of innovation processes? What role do innovation policies play in driving these processes? How does innovation impact competitiveness and performance? This involves analyzing companies’ technological opportunities, organizational