Innovation Diversity, by Sophia BELGHITI-MAHUT1, Viviane de BEAUFORT2, Anne-Laurence LAFONT3, Ouidad YOUSFI4
It is only during the last decades that the scope of innovation has been widened beyond the two traditional dimensions, technical and technological.
Perceiving innovation, solely, as “Concours Lepine” outcome, is probably a way to spread a limited version of what companies are capable of. In fact, innovation can be hybrid, and the actors involved in innovation processes are multiple and diverse. Nowadays, innovation is not only about introducing new product, service, or a managerial process, it is also about inventing new ways of communication and interaction in today’s societies.
Actually, numerous official reports have been valuing non-technical/technological forms of innovation (Strategie EUROE2020, OECD Report, 2007) and had put more emphasis on the innovators’ diversity as valuable asset. Furthermore, sustainable and responsible innovations are the ultimate aim that pull together the stakeholders wishes and interests.
The new approaches led to enlighten the role women play within organizations as female innovators and entrepreneurs. Women, have been considered, for long time, as novice when it comes to product innovations. In one hand, the literature has focused on a very exclusive and bounded definition of innovation and its means. Innovation evaluation is a quantified measure of R&D investments, outputs and/or number of new products/processes and patents released. This approach contributed to neglect the mechanisms that bond together innovation’s inputs and outputs.
In the other hand, women are underrepresented when it comes to scientific and more male-dominated fields. While women’s enterprises tend to be concentrated in the service industry, the traditional innovation literature primarily focus, was in ITC, heavy industry, health…etc.
The purpose of this special issue of Innovations “Innovation Diversity” (2018, n°56) is to introduce and discuss some recent studies on innovation and innovators (female). This aims to contribute to raise the awareness of the literature gap when it comes to female entrepreneurs and innovators and their achievements.
The special issue proposes a variety of approaches, methodologies and research fields. The authors shed light on some of the obstacles women face when they come up with innovations as well as their strategies to cope with the challenges and difficulties.
For instance, Amelie Notais and Julie Tixier discuss an innovative entrepreneurial model. This model was built based on social entrepreneurs’ experience inside underprivileged districts (La Courneuve). Such entrepreneurial model shows how personal values can be aligned with societal values and can lead to a greater social harmony.
About authors :
1 COHRIS, Université Paul Valéry, Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté, sophiamht@gmail.com
2 CEDE, ESSEC, beaufort@essec.fr
3 MRM, Université de Montpellier, anne-laurence.lafont@umontpellier.fr
4 MRM, Université de Montpellier, ouidad.yousfi@umontpellier.fr
More info :
https://www.cairn.info/revue-innovations-2018-3.htm
and
https://www.cairn.info/revue-journal-of-innovation-economics-2018-3.htm
