Benoît Godin and Dominique Vinck (eds) (2017) Critical Studies of Innovation: Alternative Approaches to the Pro-Innovation Bias. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing. 335 pages. ISBN: 978-1- 78536- 696- 3 (original) (raw)

A new perspective on innovation

2014

subordinating innovation to other values, like cultural enrichment or social justice is prohibitively high: competition, at the level of firms and of national economies, dooms dawdlers to failure, which translates into economic decline and social chaos.

Innovation as a Matter of Life and Death (short paper)

Mother Pelican -- A Journal of Solidarity and Sustainability, 2024

Every few years, inexorably, a new buzzword captures the attention and imagination of top managers and eminent scholars alike, when not those of major policymakers, influential media outlets, marketing and PR professionals, and all stripes and varieties of lower cadres within public as much as corporate bureaucracies. Every few years, a fortiori, a growing and rather dismal score of old buzzwords comes to be neglected more-and-more callously by the same fickle audiences, i.e., until the increasingly peripheral lexical specimens are transformed into prosaic descriptors, vague recollections, embarrassing blasts-from-the past, or even cultural fossils from a bygone business era, which can be of interest only to economic historians. Catchy terms, glamorous phrases, and attendant management and organisational styles have been rolling in and out of the scene for decades, if not even centuries. Think, for instance, of mantra-like formulations such as "the knowledge economy," "total quality management," "core competency," "co-opetition," "greed is good," "emotional intelligence," "management by objectives," "Asian/Celtic/Nordic Tiger," "big data," or "disruption." Nowadays, "innovation" seems to be enjoying its rhetorico-managerial and institutional heyday. Enjoy it while it lasts. (https://www.pelicanweb.org/solisustv20n12page24.html)

Philosophy of Innovation: A Research Agenda Guest Editorial (V. Blok) Philosophy of Management 2018

Innovation is all-pervasive in this day and age. Innovative companies like Apple and Google are heralded, like scientists and artists in previous ages, and inspire a lifestyle in which the status quo is challenged and no limits are accepted upfront. While new business development and innovative entrepreneurship is appreciated and encouraged, policy-makers foster innovation as well: BWe need to do much better at turning our research into new and better services and products if we are to remain competitive in the global marketplace and improve the quality of life in Europe^ (European Commission 2017). Innovation is seen as a driver for the competitiveness of Europe in the global marketplace and leads to all kinds of political efforts to remove rules and regulations that limit the innovation capacity of economic actors. The idea is that in highly industrialized nations, the long-term growth of businesses stems from their ability to continually develop and produce innovative products and services (Sternberg 2000). The European Union is sometimes called the Innovation Union in order to highlight the centrality of innovation in the quest for prosperity of Europe; it creates new jobs, improves the environment and stimulates economic growth. The economic perspective on the role of innovation in economic growth is also embraced at the firm level. As Christopher Freeman, the doyen of innovation theorists already argued, Bnot to innovate is to die^ (Freeman 1982). This is even more true in an era of continuous change and intense competition where the longevity of products and industries decreases. For this reason, the creation of innovative products and services is often seen as major concern of top executives. The concept of innovation is applicable to individual persons, economic actors like firms and the economy as a whole, and can be seen as the Bemblem of the modern society^ (Godin 2009: 5). And yet, it is not clear what exactly is meant with the notion of innovation and its impact on society. Today, society faces the grand challenge of global warming and the call for a more sustainable economy. On the one hand, while the concept of innovation originally concerned novelties in the broadest sense of the word – including imitation, invention, creative Philosophy of Management (2018) 17:1–5

The Innovation Paradox: How Innovation Products Threaten the Innovation Process

Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture – Vol. 10, No. 2, , 2010

Innovation is both a growing trend and a genuine necessity for the economy, society, environment, human health and national security. Innovation outputs appear prolific, and ongoing research continuously advances new strategies for innovation success. Little if any research, however, connects the products and the process of innovation, and explores the impact each is having on the other. This paper proposes that the products of innovation today, particularly ICT devices, networks, databases and analytics, are themselves attacking the foundations of innovation process and skills. Research on the core skills, creativity, risk-taking and mental structures necessary for innovation find that they are best cultivated in hands-on, socio-spatial environments. The conflicting realities of product and process result in the Innovation Paradox: The more we innovate in our current fashion, the more we undermine the very environments and skills necessary for robust innovation ecosystems. While several prominent authors predict dire consequences, such as "Dark Ages" where knowledge and culture are all but lost, this paper offers a new perspective. By redefining what we call, and how we practice, innovation we can begin to change the narrative and unbind the innovation paradox.

Problematizing 'Innovation' as a Critical Project

Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 2000

Based on research experience within US corporations, this paper examines the rhetoric and practices of organizational and technological 'innovation'. Our aim is to identify discourses of innovation as a site for critical studies. Two cases are used to illustrate ways in which initiatives launched in the name of change are based in traditional cultural frames that work in practice to conserve existing institutional orders. We close with some observations on alternative, indigenous sources of innovation and the conditions required to sustain them.

Reframing Innovation

Media-N

This paper outlines five presentations delivered by invited panelists during Reframing Innovation: Art, the Maker Movement and Critique, our New Media Caucus affiliated panel at the CAA Conference, February 2019, New York City. The panel developed from our co-edited volume, Art Hack Practice(forthcoming, Routledge) which investigates global art hacking practices employed by individuals and groups who are working within, around or against the phenomenon known as ‘maker culture’ as artists, designers, curators and historians. Each presentation offers a distinct account of contemporary art practices that reveal the many manifestations, characteristics and dialogs around current art hacking practices. By publishing these talks here, we aim to provide readers with new insights into projects that challenge perceived distinctions between sites of artistic and economic production by brokering new, direct ways of working between them, thereby challenging traditional understandings of the rol...