Innovation Renaissance: Defining, Debunking, and Demystifying Creativity

Innovation is not easy. Understanding the liability of newness but the potential for greatness is the central theme of this work. Innovation Renaissance explores and debunks the myths that have arisen from the proliferation of misleading and often confusing popular press treatments of creativity and innovation. Examples include the notion that successful entrepreneurs are winners because they are innovative―whereas creativity and business start-up acumen are not the same, and are rarely paired―or the idea of disruptive technology, which has now become the buzzword equivalent to radical new technology products or services, despite the fact that new technologies tend to offer simple, limited-capability products or services to satisfy overlooked customer demand. The popularity of open innovation has spawned assumptions, like the idea that crowdsourcing will increase the number of truly new ideas―but in fact the more novel these ideas, the less likely they are to be adopted by incumbent firms because they are less familiar.

Starting by defining innovation and the theories that have arisen surrounding it, Ettlie considers individual creativity and innovativeness, radical innovation, new products, new services, process innovation, and information technology. There is special emphasis on neglected topics such as the dark side of the innovation process―the unintended consequences of new ventures. Finally, the last chapter of the book summarizes a prescriptive model of the innovation process and attempts to answer the question: what causes innovation? Three major constructs are explored: leadership, enhancing capabilities and integration.

This informative and unique text is designed as a resource for postgraduate students, academics, and professionals deeply committed to understanding and working through the innovation process. The book includes an introduction to the subject before moving on to an in-depth study of emerging evidence and topics in the field.

John E. Ettlie is executive education professor at the Saunders College of Business, Rochester Institute of Technology, USA. He earned his PhD at Northwestern University and has held appointments since then at the University of Illinois Chicago, De Paul University, and the University of Michigan. He has been ranked among the top ten leading scholars in innovation management globally.