Innovation Management

Innovation is defined by the online Business Dictionary (http://www.businessdictionary.com) as the “process by which an idea or invention is translated into a good or service for which people will pay. To be called an innovation, an idea must be replicable at an economical cost and must satisfy a specific need. Innovation involves deliberate application of information, imagination, and initiative in deriving greater or different value from resources, and encompasses all processes by which new ideas are generated and converted into useful products.” M. A. Maidique suggested that there are five stages in the innovation process: recognition, invention, development, implementation, and diffusion. Bruce D. Merrifield, former U.S. assistant secretary of commerce, in a speech given in 1986 on the forces of change affecting high-technology industries, defined ...