Innovation: A Very Short Introduction

by Mark Dodgson and David Gann

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What is innovation? How can it be used? Why is failure so common in the process of innovation? This Very Short Introduction looks at what innovation is, what it has done for us, and why it has been so important in the last 150 years.

Download this VSI Reading Guide as an Adobe PDF (28 KB)

Questions for Thought and Discussion

• Which innovations have had the greatest impact on your life? Why have they had such an effect



• What lessons does Josiah Wedgwood hold for our understanding of innovation today



• Is innovation becoming easier or harder to manage



• Where do ideas for innovation come from



• Can you think of other great women inventors and innovators such as Stephanie Kwolek



• Should governments do more to encourage innovation and, if so, what should they do



• How can the lives of people living in cities be improved by innovation



• What do you think about the ways Thomas Edison encouraged innovation amongst his employees



• What are innovative companies you know about doing to improve their innovation process



• Can global environmental problems be solved by innovation



• What are the potentially negative consequences of innovation for people, companies and nations



• Should we as individuals - as producers, consumers and citizens - take greater responsibility for the development and use of innovations



• What is innovation technology and how can it improve the ways we innovate



• Do you believe failure in innovation is important? In what ways? Can you think of any recent examples



• Would you like to be a ‘boundary spanner’? What kinds of skills are needed for the role

Other books by Mark Dodgson and David Gann

• Dodgson, M., Gann, D. and Salter, A., Think, Play, Do: Technology, Innovation and Organization (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2005)



• Dodgson, M., Gann, D. and Salter, A. The Management of Technological Innovation: Strategy and Practice (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)

Further Reading

• Fagerberg, J., D. Mowery and R. Nelson (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Innovation (Oxford: Oxford University Press)



• Rosenberg, N., Inside the Black Box: Technology and Economics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982)



• Edgerton, D., Shock of the Old: Technology and Global History since 1900 (London: Profile Books, 2006)