Innovation and Theories: Stages, Theories of Innovation, and Conceptual Framework

This essay explores the stages involved in the innovation process in an organization, including idea generation, advocacy and screening, experimentation, commercialization, and diffusion and implementation. It also discusses theories of innovation like Rogers’s theory of Innovation, Drucker’s theory of innovation, and Leonard Baton theory of implementation. The essay emphasizes the importance of a conceptual framework in innovation.

INnovation
(Student Details)

Innovation and theories 1
Contents
Proposal.................................................................................................................................................2
Introduction...........................................................................................................................................2
Stages on Innovation.............................................................................................................................3
Idea generating and Mobilization......................................................................................................3
Advocacy and screening....................................................................................................................4
Experimentation................................................................................................................................4
Commercialization............................................................................................................................5
Diffusion and Implementation...........................................................................................................6
Theories of Innovation..........................................................................................................................6
Rogers’s theory of Innovation...........................................................................................................6
Innovators......................................................................................................................................7
Early Adopters...............................................................................................................................8
Early Majority...............................................................................................................................8
Late majority.................................................................................................................................8
Laggards........................................................................................................................................8
Drucker’s theory of innovation..........................................................................................................9
Unexpected occurrences................................................................................................................9
Incongruities..................................................................................................................................9
Process Needs................................................................................................................................9
Industry and Market Changes......................................................................................................10
Demographics..............................................................................................................................10
Changes in perception..................................................................................................................10
New Knowledge..........................................................................................................................10
Implementation as mutual adaptation of technology and organization by Leonard Barton...............10
Conceptual Framework........................................................................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................13
References...........................................................................................................................................14

Innovation and theories 2
Proposal
The main aim of this essay is to investigate stages involved in the innovation process in an
organization. There are several stages involved in the innovation process which must be
followed sequentially in order to achieve the desired objectives and goals of the organization.
Each organization should recognize the value of innovation which results in long term
success.
Here, in this essay, several innovation theories like Rogers’s theory of innovation, Drucker’s
theory of innovation and Leonard Baton theory of implementation will be discussed. Major
percentage of companies today create innovations because there is no formalized process for
initiatives. The expected outcome that can be generated from the below essay is that how
different stages of innovation helps company to take initiatives by applying conceptual
framework studies and theories of innovations as well.
Introduction
Innovation is defined as the way of transforming an idea into a solution. It is also a way to
convert invention into a specific goods or services which has the value and for which the
customers will ready to pay. To create an innovation, an idea must be satisfied and generate
economic cost as well. An idea generated must have some specific information and should be
easily converted into valuable products or services. In management or any organization, the
idea generated must meet the customer’s expectation and helps in the economic growth of the
organization. Mainly, there are two categories of innovation (Lundvall, 2010). They are
Evolutionary innovations and revolutionary innovations. Evolutionary innovations are
dynamic in nature and are generated by the changes in the technology. Revolutionary
innovations are also known as discontinues innovations which are generally new and
disruptive in nature (Dance, 2008).

Innovation and theories 3
Stages on Innovation
Idea generating and Mobilization
At very first stage, new ideas are created during the time of idea generation. Mobilization
takes place whenever idea is moved from one physical or logical location to other location. It
can be either be outside the firm or another departments as well. A new idea inspiration can
only be generated when an improvement in an existing idea takes place (Mariello, 2007). For
an instance, an example can be taken as how did Apple Company waited for three years long
after the introduction of MP3 players came into the market. When MP3 players came into the
market, after three years, iPod was introduced. It was attractive and it has the capacity to
store nearly 1,000 songs in it.
Again, another example can be taken that was the invention of the scotch tape which was a
very new idea in the market and it worked successfully as well. Scotch tape was introduced
by Richard Drew who was dropped out from the college and completed his idea. Drew
worked in 3M Company who further provided 15% of the workday to explore new ideas.
Other many organization also started following the same idea and stated that time and
resources are the two major factors in any firm.
With the context to innovation, “overemphasising need will force some employees to leave
for more stable jobs while not emphasizing need will reduce the urgency and generation of
ideas across the board (Neese, 2017).

Innovation and theories 4
Advocacy and screening
Every idea cannot be implemented and if they are implemented, it is not sure that it is worth
implementing. Advocacy and screening of the ideas helps to measure their potential in terms
of benefits, importance, values and problems. And then later, decision can take place about
the idea. There are many advantages for the advocacy and screening process. One of major
advantage is refinement. Refinement is the way of neglecting unnecessary ideas and
enhancing those ideas which have potential in it. This stage helps to prepare an idea that will
be applicable for the upper management in an organization. Generally, it happens that the
person who generate the ideas does not have enough skills and abilities to represent them, but
this can be implemented or supported and encouraged by the managers who are working in
the organization. The managers can support the idea generator which will help them to
achieve goals and objectives.
There are many companies who are thinking to build robust culture which must follow the
given steps. First step is that employees working in an organization must have huge number
of avenues in order to receive advocacy and feedback. Second one is a firm must have the
ability to understand the problems that are involved in evaluating all the innovative ideas.
And the last one is there must be transparency while evaluating and screening all the
necessary protocols.
Experimentation
This stage helps to test an idea which has already been generated. It generally tests whether
all the protocols are tested properly or not. It was stated that “Experimentation does not test
an idea’s objective merits but it tests the suitability for the particular organization at a
particular period of time.” Therefore, it can be said that there exist some ideas which can be
used later because at present, they might not be that useful and helpful to the organization.
Experimentation can either be done on a continuous basis or it can be done in spurts.
Experimentation helps to create new ideas because of the information collected on the basis
of results. In this stage, time plays a major role because nevertheless every experiment need

Innovation and theories 5
time. An idea generator has enough time to run those experiments. An idea is experimented
after the process of evaluation and refinement.
Today, one can see availability of new products and services in grocery stores. Let us take an
example of an innovation which took place in 2007. In 2007, Amazon tested its delivery of
products and services in some Seattle Suburbs. It became successful and later Amazon
expanded its business to Los Angles, San Diego and New York cities as well. Today Amazon
has also successfully targeted New Jersey and United Kingdom (Kline and Rosenberg, 2010).
Commercialization
Commercialization is the next stage of the innovation process. It helps to create and generate
market value for an idea which has already been generated. It aims at focusing on the
potential impact of the idea. This stage enables to present the idea in such a way that it looks
attractive and appealing to the customers and many audiences. It includes packaging one idea
with other ideas or determining how and when the generated idea can be used effectively and
efficiently, and also using several protocols to generate benefits from the experiments.
One of the major part of this stage is establishing and introducing the specifications of any
idea presented. The promises and the potentials which was used in previous stage of
innovation must be left behind in order to gain the new benefits of new innovation process.
Thus, it can be stated that once an idea is generated and refined, then it can be implemented
to meet the needs and expectation of the customers. Under this stage, the focus moves from
development stage to persuasion stage. Once the idea is generated and clarifies then it can be
ready for implementation (Tohidi, 2011).
Diffusion and Implementation

Innovation and theories 6
Diffusion and implementation are the two major points of the innovation process. Diffusion is
the way when a company accepts the innovative idea ad thus implements it. Every
organization takes the help of this stage. Generally, this stage of innovation is aided by
knowledge brokers. Knowledge brokers are those persons who can present the innovation by
using their own awareness. They aim at producing their own application in which those ideas
can be inserted and also helps at assisting rapid implementation (Bushnell, 2014).
The innovation process cannot be demonstrated by this stage. In order to successfully
implement the new ideas in the company, several resources will be required along with a
marketing plan and a strong and enthusiastic culture. This stage creates an opportunity to
determine the other sets of needs of the customers and generate more future ideas. Here,
feedback is also received from the customers which will stimulate the innovation process and
work as an indicator for successful business plan (Chesbrough, 2010).
Theories of Innovation
Rogers’s theory of Innovation
Rogers’s theory of Innovation is also known as Diffusion of Innovation theory. This theory
was proposed by E.M. Rogersin in the year 1962. It is one of the oldest theory of social
science which was introduced by communication and explains how an idea generated can be
spread in a whole population or a system (Wayne, 2016).

Innovation and theories 7
Let us take an example of the Facebook. When it was introduced, it focused on the
youngsters’ range of people like college students and graduates. And later they became the
unofficial and informal brand ambassadors if the products as well (Standing and Kiniti,
2011).
This theory explains that people are the major part of the social system because they are the
one who adopts the new ideas or any products or services. Here, adoption simply means
when an individual does something new which does not match with the previous action i.e.
when an individual purchase a new product which they have never used. The idea behind
adoption is that an individual must be able to adopt the new idea. Adoption is a slow and
gradual process which takes time (Rogers, 2010). Each individual is different today. Some
people easily adopt new ideas while some needs time to adopt the same. It is examined that
the people who easily adopt innovation have different traits and characteristics than the
people who are late in adopting new ideas. So, before promoting the innovation among the
population, it is very crucial to know the traits of an individual (Hanlon, 2013).
There are five adopter categories to understand the traits and characteristics of the population
while promoting the innovation. They are listed below.
Innovators
Innovators are those who always want to be ranked first to try any new ideas. They are
always interested and keen to know the new innovations. They can easily take risks and

Innovation and theories 8
develop and implement new ideas. But, these kinds of people are very rarely found. 2.5%
among 100% are the one who comes under this category.
Early Adopters
Early adopters are those who works as an opinion leader. They are often involved in
leadership roles and hold the opportunities very easily. They find it very easy to adopt new
ideas and it does not require much efforts to convince such people. They are found in 13.5%
among the whole population.
Early Majority
Early majority are those who are not leaders but they adopt new ideas very frequently. The
strategies behind this is effectiveness and success stories of the innovation. Here in this
category, people adopt changes without any evidences. Majority of average person comes
under this category i.e. 34% (Kaminski, 2011).
Late majority
Late majority are those who adopt the innovation only when majority of the population have
already tried it. They will only adopt new innovation once they get to know that how many
people have earlier tried it and how much of them were satisfied. It also includes 34% of the
population.
Laggards
Laggards are those who are very conservative in nature and does not accept changes. They
are the hardest among all the categories. They can only adopt changes when they have a fear
appeals or some pressure otherwise, they will not adopt changes at any cost.
Moreover, there are five major factors that influence to adopt the innovation. These are
mentioned below.
Relative Advantage: It signifies the degree to which an innovation is examined as better than
the idea it gas replaced or transformed.
Compatibility: It denotes the consistency of the innovation. It identifies the consistency of
innovation in terms of values, potential, needs and experiences.

Innovation and theories 9
Complexity: It denotes the problems faced by an individual to understand or use the products
or services.
Triability: It is the method of experimenting an idea before implementing it.
Observability: It denotes the results and outcomes of the innovation that are tangible in
nature.
Drucker’s theory of innovation
This theory of innovation was proposed by Peter F. Drucker who also contributed to the
management theory. He stated that the process of innovation must be considered as work
which must be managed like the other corporate functions are managed in an organization
(Drucker, 2014). He defined innovation as “an effort to create purposeful, focused change in
an enterprise’s economic or social potential”. He also said that the best innovations do not
take place from an individual but it can take place when an individual search for an
opportunity for innovation. He identified seven major areas of opportunity (Luebke, 2010).
Four of them are internal opportunities that lies within the organization and three of them are
external opportunities.
Unexpected occurrences
A product or services may sometimes fail to fulfil its purpose but it might be immensely
successful on the other side. If a product or services fails at very first stage, then it gives an
encourage and motivation to revise and redesign it and then again introduce it in the market.
But it is very important to address the reasons behind its failures. Thus, unexpected
occurrences take place outside the organization which create new opportunities for work.
Incongruities
Incongruities is the conflicts that takes place between the opposing functions at the very first
stage of innovation. The conflict may take place because the differences between the
outcomes and expectations or the gaps between needs and realities. Besides of these conflicts,
it also provides an opportunity for the innovation to reconfigure the entire products and
services (Soni, 2014).
Process Needs

Innovation and theories
10
There is an old proverb “Necessity is the mother of invention” which is proven indeed. The
desire to make the product more efficient is always possible when an idea generator is highly
involved in creative thinking. When he starts thinking more creative, then it will be easy to
fill the gaps in processes.
Industry and Market Changes
The changes in the market and industry plays a major role to bring a change in the innovation
process. The introduction of new product can change the whole process. Earlier, there was
the role of traditional market where they used to focus on maintaining their dominance rather
than adopting new ideas. But new market has given an opportunity to enter new market and
new players (Drucker and Maciariello, 2015).
Demographics
Demographics is one the important source of innovation because it helps to create
opportunities for the new product. The needs of the people vary from place to place, gender
to gender and ages to ages. To it is very difficult to identify the needs of the product of all the
segments of people.
Changes in perception
Perception of an individual vary from person to person. Let us take an example, it was said
that fat people are healthier but this perception has been changed recently. It is now said that
overweight is a risk factor and for this low calories and sugar free products are introduced in
the market (Greenhalgh and Rogers, 2010).
New Knowledge
New knowledge has created new opportunities for the new products. Noe technologies, use of
internet, use of programming tools has become of the major motor of innovation and will
help the new product to capture the market in the future trends.
Implementation as mutual adaptation of technology
and organization by Leonard Barton

Innovation and theories
11
Whenever an organization is involved in the implementation of the innovation, managers
force employees to adopt changes and also influence innovation. He encourages his
subordinates to adapt changes and work for it in order to generate new customers with new
products as well. Though manager is not only responsible to innovate changes but the
personal traits of the individual employees also plays an important role in an organization.
The characteristics of an employee and the managers are interlinked with each other to
innovate changes. When an organization is involved in the innovation process then it must be
adapted by managers as well as employees. The person who has low personal innovativeness
or those who are low performers will deny the changes. But they are motivated and
influenced by the management to adopt changes. Similarly, the employees who are high
performers or those who have high personal innovativeness are generally not influenced by
the management for any adoption decisions. There are majorly two steps involved in the
management process. Employees whose personal traits will incline them to adopt changes
will automatically adopt it without any support of management and employees who are low
performers will wait for the managers to influence them before adopting. Likewise whenever
an organization develops technology, it serves those technology to those who are more
knowledgeable it its applications. The developers and users both should run on a parallel line.
So, every process of innovation is highly involved with the decisions of managers as well as
employees (Barton and Kraus, 2010).
Conceptual Framework
A conceptual framework is a tool which is used to analyse huge number of variations and
contexts. It also aims at developing ideas which will be helpful for the organization. It
designs conceptual distinctions and also enables at capturing anything that is real and makes
the things easy to be done. It provides the easiest solution to any problems by providing
innovative ideas. It basically build up concepts which are designed in a logical and sequential
way. It also helps to reduce number of theories which are generally applied (Patrick, 2015).

Innovation and theories
12
Purpose of Conceptual Framework
 It helps to clarify and build concepts in a study.
 It aims at providing the context to interpret the findings of the study.
 To also helps to explain observations.
 It helps to develop and motivate theory development which is very important in daily
practises (Pellissier, 2008).
The above diagram shows the example of conceptual framework which represents the health
wellness program. It basically consists of two major categories i.e. demographics profile and
parenting styles. Demographic profile includes age, status, educational qualifications, and
number of members in the family and the economic status of the family. These all factors
have a self-esteem which is either high, low or medium. Similarly, there are three major types
of parenting style i.e. Authoritative, democratic or permissive. Authoritative parenting style is
that style which is characterized by high responses and high demands. This parenting style
generally has this basic characteristics like observing, flexible, good listener and forgiving
instead of giving punishment (Cherry, 2017). Likewise, democratic parenting style is also
known as positive parenting style because parents under this style assume that the children
will obviously follow their guidelines (Saha, 2017). Similarly, permissive style is that style
which is characterized by low demands and high responses. This type of people are very
loving in nature and do not provide any strict guidelines to be followed by their children
(Cherry, 2018).

Innovation and theories
13
Conclusion
Thus, it can be concluded that innovation plays a very major role in the development and
growth of the organization. There are several stages of innovation which are to be followed
sequentially in order to generate an idea, screen it, experiment it, commercialize and then
implement it. Moreover, it can also be concluded that there are two basic theories of
innovation proposed by Drucker and Roger. These two theories of innovation helps an
organization to maintain a strong relationship with its customers by providing them
innovative products and services. Innovative products enables the employees to attract more
number of customers towards it. Nevertheless, it also aims at adopting the conceptual
framework of innovation which is generally followed by the company to set easy protocols
for a complex problems.

Innovation and theories
14
References
Barton. L and Kraus. W, 2010, Implementing New Technology, viewed on 15th February, 2018.
Available at: https://hbr.org/1985/11/implementing-new-technology
Bushnell. N, 2014, a five-stage innovation process, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available
at: https://www.alchemyformanagers.co.uk/topics/UTUNv86fRrS5Xb6D.html
Cherry. K, 2017, What Is Authoritative Parenting, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available
at: https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-authoritative-parenting-2794956
Cherry. K, 2018, What Is Permissive Parenting, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available at:
https://www.verywellmind.com/what-is-permissive-parenting-2794957
Chesbrough, H., 2010. Business model innovation: opportunities and barriers. Long range
planning, 43(2-3), pp.354-363.
Dance. J, 2008, what is innovation, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available at:
https://www.freshconsulting.com/what-is-innovation/
Drucker, P. and Maciariello, J.A., 2015. The daily Drucker. Routledge.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Greenhalgh, C. and Rogers, M., 2010. Innovation, intellectual property, and economic
growth. Princeton University Press.
Hanlon. A, 2013, what is the Diffusion of Innovation model, viewed on 12th February, 2018.
Available at: https://www.smartinsights.com/marketing-planning/marketing-models/
diffusion-innovation-model/
Kaminski, J., 2011. Diffusion of innovation theory. Canadian Journal of Nursing
Informatics, 6(2), pp.1-6.
Kline, S.J. and Rosenberg, N., 2010. An overview of innovation. In Studies On Science And
The Innovation Process: Selected Works of Nathan Rosenberg (pp. 173-203).
Luebke. R, 2010, Peter Drucker on Innovation, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available at:
innovationexcellence.com/blog/2010/07/30/peter-drucker-on-innovation/

Innovation and theories
15
Lundvall, B.Å. ed., 2010. National systems of innovation: Toward a theory of innovation and
interactive learning (Vol. 2). Anthem Press.
Mariello. A, 2007, the Five Stages of Successful Innovation, viewed on 12th February, 2018.
Available at: https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/the-five-stages-of-successful-innovation/
Neese. B, 2017, cultivating a Robust Organization: 5 Stages of the Innovation Process,
viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available at: https://online.rivier.edu/5-stages-of-the-
innovation-process/
Patrick. R, 2015, Conceptual framework: a step by step guide on how to make one, viewed on
12th February, 2018. Available at: simplyeducate.me/2015/01/05/conceptual-framework-
guide/
Pellissier. R, 2008, A CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK FOR THE ALIGNMENT OF
INNOVATION AND TECHNOLOGY, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available at:
www.jotmi.org/index.php/GT/article/viewFile/art88/448
Rogers, E.M., 2010. Diffusion of innovations. Simon and Schuster.
Saha. R, 2017, Democratic Parenting Style: Treating Kids as Equals, viewed on 12th
February, 2018. Available at: http://www.momjunction.com/articles/democratic-
parenting_00401126/
Soni. P, 2014, Innovation and Entrepreneurship (Peter Drucker, 1985), viewed on 12th
February, 2018. Available at: https://www.slideshare.net/pavan7soni/innovation-and-
entrepreneurship-peter-drucker-1985
Standing, C. and Kiniti, S., 2011. How can organizations use wikis for innovation?
Technovation, 31(7), pp.287-295.
Tohidi. H, 2011, Different Stages of Innovation Process, viewed on 12th February, 2018.
Available at: https://ac.els-cdn.com/S2212017312001260/1-s2.0-S2212017312001260-
main.pdf?_tid=e7ebd21a-0faf-11e8-8e82-
00000aab0f6b&acdnat=1518411070_58a5b7eef42085e1d8450c0bd61dcce3
Wayne. W, 2016, Diffusion of Innovation Theory, viewed on 12th February, 2018. Available
at: http://sphweb.bumc.bu.edu/otlt/MPH-Modules/SB/BehavioralChangeTheories/
BehavioralChangeTheories4.html

Innovation and theories
16

Innovation and theories
17