Inventors vs Innovators

[Anne Mirtschin]

Why is it that inventors often become quite famous but innovators never quite get to that level of fame? What is the difference between invention and innovation?

[Mary Pendergast]

I think an innovator is an inventor - perhaps simply a name shift in a new generation. We would have to say that an inventor was innovative in employing critical and creative thought to make a new idea tangible. An innovator is inventive if invention means making up something that hasn't been created before the idea took shape.

[Jonas Holm Nielsen]

Hi Anne.

Your question is very relevant and central to understanding innovation and management of the innovation process.

Most scholars and authors of innovation litterature agree that innovation should be defined as:

Invention + commercialization (appropriation/implementation in a system) = Innovation (eg. Afuah, 2002)

The inventor is thus not very innovative and need other competencies to be an innovator.

This can open up discussions and reflections on how to teach innovation and entrepreneurship. What skills and competencies are needed to integrate konowledge and insight bringing invention and innovation closer together?

Furthermore it opens up a wide perspective on how to innovate a system to ensure that inventions can create value.

Jonas

[Adrian Camm]

An invention is some new product or idea that has been bought to fruition, where as innovation is a social function that is always relative to a particular context.

Listen to Scott Berkun at Google Tech Talks - The Myths of Innovation

[Adrian Camm]

Thought-provoking question. Is standardization a competitor to innovation?