Concept of Innovation and Commercialization in Business

Concept of innovation compared to invention
Meaning
Invention means the existence of an idea that
comprises of manufacturing a product or service which
has never been made before. As compared to this,
innovation refers to bringing a change in a product or
service for the very first time (Wang, Phillips and Yang,
2021). Therefore, while invention is creating a new
product innovation is related to adding value to the
existing product or service and bringing a change in it.
Definition
Invention is defined as the art which deals with
creation, designing and discovery of a process which has
never existed before. As compared to this, innovation is
defined as a change which is aimed at adding value to the
existing products for fulfilling the needs of the
customers. It is concerned with the introduction of a new
product in a way which is more effective in meeting the
needs of the customers.
Concept
The concept of invention is rooted in the original
idea followed by implementation in the theoretical
aspects. As compared to this, innovation refers to
practical implementation of the novel idea.
Skills required
Invention requires scientific skills as it is
related to discovery of an entirely new concept. As
compared to this, innovation requires a collection of
strategic, marketing as well as technical skills as the
new idea needs to be implemented practically (Kim
and Bae, 2021).
Occurrence
The occurrence of invention takes place when a
completely now idea strikes. As compared to this,
innovation occurs when an organization feels the need
to improve an already existing service or product.
Process
Invention is concerned with a single process or
product. As compared to this, innovation is concerned
with a numbe4 of processes and products that work in
combination.
Activities
When invention takes place, it mainly involves
research and development activities. As compared to
this, innovation deals with the various activities which
are spread across the organization.
Appraising two types and 4 Ps of innovation
Types of innovation
Incremental innovation
These are the gradual and continuous improvements
that take place in the existing concepts, products or services.
Incremental innovation is concerned with providing a better
version of the product as compared to its previous version.
This type of innovation is characterized by the presence of a
slight variation in the already existing product which makes
it easier to use as well as more attractive for the consumers.
However, the core functionality of the product is not
changed in this type of innovation (Cheah and Yuen-Ping,
2021). Therefore, this is the constant improvement which is
brought about in the product or service that makes it more
efficient. However, it can be critically appraised that
incremental innovations are not useful for the organizations
. This is because, the focus of the
organizations is on optimizing their current
offering rather than creating a new value
network.
For example, this type of innovation
can be suitable for organizations like Tesla,
that have capabilities which are different from
the traditional car manufacturers. Netflix is
another example of disruptive innovation. The
mail- in movie subscription service introduced
by netflix did not seem attractive to
mainstream customers but to those who were
early adopters and were in a habit of online
shopping.
4 Ps of innovation
 Product- Product innovation is
concerned with changes in the
products and services offered by an
organization. This comprises of change
in design of existing product or
changing the entire product. Product
innovation provides the advantage to
organizations as it enables them to
create new spaces and satisfy the
customers by adopting a refreshing
approach.
 Paradigm- Paradigm innovation refers to
the shifting of the mental model by
bringing a change in the status quo (Kim
and Bae, 2021). For example, smart
phones and iPhones are an example of
paradigm innovation as they change the
way in which customers absorbed
information. While earlier the information
was obtained from newspaper, TV etc.,
the advent of smart phones and iphones
made consumers switch to using data via
their phones.
 Process- This is concerned with change in
the process of production of goods and
services. Based on the market changes,
redesigning of the production processes is
done. Process innovation consists of
various innovations that allow
organizations to align their processes in a
way that is customer oriented. This
innovation proves advantageous to the
organizations as it allows them to adapt to
changes in the business environment
quickly.
For example, organizations manufacturing
Televisions and phones implement incremental
innovation. Through these, they are able to provide better
versions of smart phones and TVs by bringing gradual
improvements in the products. These improvements are
catered to meeting the needs of the customers. However, a
disadvantage of the incremental innovation os that these
do not possess the power of making a huge impact on the
market before the new versions of the products are just
slightly better than the previous ones. Another risk
associated with incremental innovation is that as the
market is constantly changing, relying solely on
incremental innovation may prove to be dangerous for the
organization (Sutopo, Astuti and Suryandari, 2019).
Disruptive innovation
This is concerned with a product or a service
which creates a new value network for the organization.
This happens as the organization either enters an existing
market or creates an entirely new market. It can be
appraised that these innovations initially provide lower
performance. However, disruptive innovation has the
capability of converting non customers into customers.
But, disruptive innovation seems to be difficult to most of
the organizations as they do not successfully adjust to the
new competition.
 Position – There are situations when businesses
change their audience. They initially begin by
targeting a particular group of audience and later
expand to target a wider group. This gives rise to
position innovation which is mainly concerned
with repositioning of the organization (Wang,
Phillips and Yang, 2021). This involves offering
a product or service in a new market. For
example, organizations such as AirBNB initially
focused on conferences but later repositioned
themselves as general holiday and a traveller
company. Apart from this, position based
innovations are also concerned with changing
the use or perception of a particular product and
service.
Innovation funnels
Innovation funnel: Innovation refers to the
mechanism which provides a continuous stream of
innovative and creative ideas as well as the prototypes
which can be screened for feasible. Innovation funnel is
an important tool for the organizations as it allow them
to create ideas and innovation which lead towards
business success (Anzola-Román and et.al., 2019). It
also helps in developing innovation without wasting
resources and capital as well keeps the focus
consistently on objectives which are be which are be
attained.
In order to develop an innovative process,
software, service or product, innovation funnel is the key.
In innovation funnel the development of innovative
product, service or software, the process undergoes three
major parts such as wide mouth, narrowing section and
narrow part. Every part of the process is further divided
into various different stages. Every idea have to pass
through funnel, which have assessment procedure for
determining that is most suitable for desired goals.
However, every stage have a common goal which is to
ensure that only best ideas are developed further
(Ruposov and et.al., 2018). There are the various models
of innovation funnel such as stage gate method, design
thinking method and lean start-up method. For
development of ideas r products through innovation
funnel, following steps should be taken into account. At
the time of development of innovations for initiating the
process of innovation funnel, the employees have to
generate a number of criteria which are associated with
feasibility and timelines for innovative plan.
In the first phase the company gathers as much ideas as
possible. After that the ideas are screened. It involves
matching the ideas with the goals if organization. In the
last step, organizations have to ensure that the objectives
and ideas are turned. For example: Amazon is the best
example for innovation funnel.
The employees of Amazon have created
an innovative collective-verification-incubation
funnel through which it have developed various
innovative ideas (Franken and et.al., 2020).
Amazon attempts to come up with new and
innovative ideas for performing daily tasks.
Coming up with new ideas is itself a task for
executives. They put this responsibility on people
who are on lower levels to them. Therefore, the
company is able to come up with new ideas.
Amazon is one of the leading company for
innovation through leaning from competing
products or service. The company believes that it
have to do better than competitors. And if the
competitors do better than the company, then the
company learns from their models until it
develops a better model than them. At Amazon
the ideas are mass produced like the factory
goods, which are helps the company in successful
implementation of new ideas and processes
(Abramov
Frugal Innovation
Frugal innovation is the tool or method which
provides the functional solutions by few resources. It is
the ability if companies to generate considerably more
social value and business value while reducing the use
of scarce resources. Frugal innovation is all about
solving as well as transcending the paradox for doing
more with less (Albert, 2019). Frugal innovation is a
strategy which is game in the time of austerity where
the companies are influenced by eco-aware and cost
conscious customers. So the companies are constantly
offering products and services which are of high
quality, affordable as well as sustainable.
Frugal innovation is much more than just a strategy, it
is a mind-set which proposes a flexible approach that
perceives the resources of a company as a growth
opportunity and not as a debilitating challenge
(Hossain, 2020). It aims to creating products which are
low costs as well as designs. As the frugal innovations
demonstrate the landscape of entrepreneurs where the
small companies having limited resources to develop
the innovations for the customers which are
underserved. It also helps in creating new markets so
that companies can contribute towards sustainability.
For example: USA had introduced the frugal
innovation in a smartphone. It is called as the
Mozilla Firefox OS smart phone which is worth
$25. It was the industry’s cheapest smart phone
which redefined the entry level of smartphones as
a well a key growth in smartphone industry.
REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Abramova, O.Y. and et.al., 2019. Innovation
funnel of modern TRIZ: experimental study
to show the efficacy of the TRIZ-assisted
Stage-Gate process. Journal of the
International TRIZ Association–MATRIZ.
p.79.
Albert, M., 2019. Sustainable frugal innovation-
The connection between frugal innovation
and sustainability. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 237. p.117747.
Anzola-Román, P. and et.al., 2019. Technological
proximity and the intensity of collaboration
along the innovation funnel: direct and joint
effects on innovative performance. Journal
of knowledge management.
Cheah, S.L.Y. and Yuen-Ping, H.O., 2021.
Commercialization performance of
outbound open innovation projects in
public research organizations: The roles of
innovation potential and organizational
capabilities. Industrial Marketing
Management. 94. pp.229-241.
It also helps in analysing the antecedents,
consequences and processes and development of frugal
development as well as commercialization. It also helps in
analyse how the innovation evolve and diffuse in the
current emerging markets (Hossain, 2018). It also helps in
analysing what triggers innovation and what motivate the
employees to be engaged in innovations.
The development of frugal innovation including a
bricolage approach works as a promising way for meeting
the needs of consumers which are underserved at the time
when the emerging markets are providing basis for those
innovations. . Nowadays the economic issues,
environment concerns and social issues are becoming
more significant now to develop the products. The
acquisition of innovations and technologies which
encourage sustainability as also an integral part of product
development process (Fischer and et.al., 2020). Therefore,
the frugal innovation become essential for the business to
say ahead of business competitions. Frugal innovations
provide various advantages to company such as speed,
lack of bureaucracy, new potential markets as well as low
costs. However, it have some disadvantages as well. The
disadvantages involve the lack of political powers,
difficulty in analysing key perspectives as well as its
dependence on the voluntary activities.

Fischer, B. and et.al., 2020. Knowledge transfer for
frugal innovation: where do entrepreneurial
universities stand?. Journal of Knowledge
Management.
Franken, R. and et.al., 2020. Ranking of human risk
assessment models for manufactured
nanomaterials along the Cooper stage-gate
innovation funnel using stakeholder
criteria. NanoImpact. 17. p.100191.
Hossain, M., 2018. Frugal innovation: A review and
research agenda. Journal of Cleaner
Production. 182. pp.926-936.
Hossain, M., 2020. Frugal innovation: Conception,
development, diffusion, and outcome. Journal of
Cleaner Production. 262. p.121456
Kim, C.B. and Bae, K.S., 2021. Moderating Effect of
Technology Development Activities Among
Entrepreneurial Orientation, the Capability of
Technology Innovation and Commercialization
Performance: Focused on ICT Technology New
Ventures. Asia-Pacific Journal of Business
Venturing and Entrepreneurship. 16(5). pp.31-47.
Ruposov, V.L. and et.al., 2018. University innovation
funnel model. In The European Proceedings of
Social & Behavioural Sciences EpSBS (pp. 156-
164).
Sutopo, W., Astuti, R.W. and Suryandari, R.T., 2019.
Accelerating a technology commercialization;
with a discussion on the relation between
technology transfer efficiency and open
innovation. Journal of Open Innovation:
Technology, Market, and Complexity. 5(4). p.95.
Wang, Y.C., Phillips, F. and Yang, C., 2021. Bridging
innovation and commercialization to create value:
An open innovation study. Journal of Business
Research. 123. pp.255-266.