Innovation glossary
In these pages we've listed some of the most common terms that are used in innovation. We've tried to define them as simply and clearly as possible, with links to further references as appropriate. We hope you find this section useful and informative - you are welcome to comment on individual entries. Agree? Disagree? Do you know of other online references? Use the comment form to have your say.
Business angels
Business Angels Informal private investor who is willing to provide capital for high-risk, high-growth firms at a very early stage and who...
Business model innovation
A description of the operations of a business - including the components and functions of the business and the revenues and...
Collective innovation
Collective innovation Collective innovation refers to processes where no single organisation or agent is responsible for the development of the innovation, but...
Creative Industries
Creative Industries The DCMS (1998) were the first governmental department to adopt the concept of the creative industries and defined it as...
Creativity
Creativity The capacity for imagination and originality of thought in the generation and expression of ideas. Creativity does not simply reside in...
Disruptive innovation
Disruptive innovation Disruptive innovations are typically cheaper, easier-to-use versions of, or alternatives to, existing products or services that target 'low-end' or new...
Entrepreneurship
Entrepreneurship The term is often used to describe new venture creation and small business management. Schumpeter describes entrepreneurship as the ability to...
Externality
Externality When the action of one individual or entity affects another individual or entity. The action can impose costs (negative externality) or...
Hidden innovation
Hidden innovation The innovation activities that are not reflected in traditional indicators such as investments informal R&D or patents awarded. Despite not...
Incremental innovation
Incremental innovation Builds on what is already there, modifying existing functions and practices. Herbig (1994) distinguishes three types of innovations within the...
Innovation
Innovation Innovation is the development and dissemination of a new product, service or process that produces economic, social or cultural change. Innovation is...
Intellectual Property Rights
Intellectual Property rights It is a bundle of rights that protects applications of ideas and information that have commercial and social value....
Interdisciplinarity
Interdisciplinarity Rhoten and Pfirman (2006) identify a common theme that interdisciplinarity is the "integration or synthesis of two or more disparate disciplines,...
Invention
Invention Invention is the first occurrence of an idea for a new product or process, while innovation is the first attempt to...
Knowledge economy
Knowledge Economy A knowledge economy is one in which the generation and the exploitation of knowledge has come to play the...
Knowledge transfer
Knowledge Transfer Knowledge transfer is the exchange of information through networks. According to the DTI knowledge transfer is about "transferring good ideas,...
Open innovation
Open Innovation Concept developed by Henry Chesbrough (2003) for whom Open innovation can be understood as the antithesis of the traditional vertical...
Public good
Public good Public goods are goods or services that can be consumed by several individuals simultaneously without diminishing the value of consumption...
R&D
R&D Activities that directly contribute to achieving advance in science or technology through the resolution of scientific or technological uncertainty. According to...
R&D tax credits
R&D Tax credits R&D Tax credits are a company tax relief which reduces the company's taxable profits and aims at encouraging...
Seed capital
Seed capital Seed Capital is the early-stage limited equity capital used to start a new venture or business. It is the...
Skills for innovation
Skills for innovation In a competitive global economy, skills in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) often play an important role in...
Social innovation
Social innovation Activities and services that are motivated by the goal of meeting a social need, diffused through organisations, individuals and enterprises...
Social networks
Social networks The term was first coined in 1954 by J. A. Barnes. A social network describes actors and their relationships...
Systems of innovation
Systems of innovation Approach for understanding innovations occurring in an economy that has emerged in the 1980s and that was mainly developed...
User-led innovation
User-led innovation Eric von Hippel (1988) has identified user-led innovation as the process by which a person or a company develops...
Venture capital
Venture Capital Venture Capital is the money and resources made available to start-up firms and small businesses with perceived long-term growth potential....