Hidden innovation: paradigm change in innovation studies
The dominant paradigm within innovation studies has focused on technological innovation as well as on companies, conceived of as innovative agents, as it is expressed in the Oslo Manual of the OECD and Eurostat. This conceptual framework has proved insufficient to analyze other forms of innovation, which are not detected, neither measured, by the system of indicators used by the Oslo Manual and its derivative instruments. Since 2007 the British NESTA has carried out many case studies related to these forms of hidden innovation. This project aims at clarifying conceptually the notion of innovation, distinguishing its types, agents, sources and scales. It will also discuss some epistemological, methodological and axiological issues that arise when trying to analyze processes of innovation beyond the dominant paradigm BTI (business and technological innovation). In order to achieve these goals, several case studies of hidden innovation in five major areas will be carried out: ICT, eco-innovation, cultural innovation, aging and social innovation. Finally, the project seeks to lay the conceptual foundations and even build and test some prototypes of indicator systems for some forms of hidden innovation.
The ultimate goal is to show that an alternative paradigm in innovation studies is emerging, which revolves around the concept and methods of analysis of social innovation,.
SUPPORTED BY THE SPANISH MINISTRY OF ECONOMY AND COMPETITIVITY (PROYECT FFI2011-25475)
Publications about INNOC project: