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Top1. Introduction
Innovation is incorporated by organizations in all their activities to sustain and to grow in the competitive business environment. They incorporate innovation in their vision, mission, and objective statements (Hekkert, Janssen, Wesseling, & Negro, 2020). Organizations appoint chief innovation officer whose primary responsibility is to encourage innovation and to develop a culture of innovation in the organization. Educational institutes have centers of innovation and centers of excellence. Innovation has gathered attention and has become the single-most important phenomenon in an organization (O’Bryan, 2013). At the same time, there is a misunderstanding regarding the objectives of incorporating innovation in organizations. Consequently, a number of companies find innovation elusive (Kuratko, Covin, & Hornsby, 2014).
Organizations and individuals have misconceptions about innovation. A common misconception is that innovation must be something completely new and radical in nature (Kokshagina & Alexander, 2020). They believe that minor and incremental improvements should not be considered as innovation. Innovation means something which is completely new and radical in nature. The issue with this belief is that radical innovation is quite challenging and may require special resources. Radical innovation also involves substantial risk which is much more than the risk taken by organizations in case of incremental innovation (Rampa & Agogué, 2021). Incremental innovation supported by radical innovation, balances the innovation effort by allowing small improvements along with substantial improvements. Successful organizations realize and understand that innovation happens along a continuum, ranging from minor incremental changes to major radical innovations (Ind, Iglesias, & Markovic, 2017).
It is evident from the discussions that the topic of innovation is important. It is imperative for organizations to have a proper understanding of the various aspects of innovation and to implement innovation in all its activities. However, the literature reveals that organizations lack in the proper understanding of innovation and its various aspects. The study aims to address this research gap.
The objective of the study is to conduct a conceptual analysis of the various aspects of innovation. The latest and relevant literature on innovation is analyzed to understand the various aspects of innovation.
The methodology adopted is a conceptual analysis of various aspects of innovation and how innovation is applied in an organizational scenario. Primary data is not collected and empirical analysis is not done.
The novelty and the contributions of the study lie in the fact that an in-depth discussion about various aspects of innovation is done. Both academicians and practitioners will benefit from the discussions done in the study. Academicians may study and analyze the various concepts and models of innovation and suggest models which are relevant and effective. Organizations should be innovative in order to sustain in the competition. Practicing managers will realize and understand the various aspects of innovation. They will realize that innovation is an outcome, a process, and a mindset. This understanding should be internalized to succeed in the competitive business environment and to achieve business excellence.
The study is structured as follows.
The concept of innovation and its definitions are highlighted in section 2. Innovation has various aspects which include innovation as an outcome, innovation as a process, and innovation as a mindset. The various aspects of innovation as an outcome are discussed in section 3 with the various types of outcomes – product innovation and its types, process innovation, marketing innovation, business model innovation, supply chain innovation, and organizational innovation discussed in the sub-sections of section 3. Innovation as a process and innovation as a mindset are discussed in sections 4 and 5 respectively. The salient points of the study are discussed in section 6 with sub-sections 6.1 and 6.2 highlighting the theoretical implications and the managerial implications of the study respectively. Section 7 concludes the study with sub-sections 7.1 and 7.2 highlighting the limitations of the study and the avenues of future research respectively.