The Importance of Man Within the System: Defining and Measuring the Human Factor in Innovation, a Review
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The Importance of Man Within the System: Defining and Measuring the Human Factor in Innovation, a Review George Martinidis 1
Received: 22 February 2016 / Accepted: 19 August 2016 # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2016
Abstract Innovation, in the modern sense, is a complex process that depends on a whole system involving a wide range of factors. Yet, it remains an inherently human endeavour, with human capital in its centre. Major benchmarking indices define and measure the human factor in innovation in terms of education, but often do so in a superficial way because of a lack of data or methodological restrictions. In addition, they tend to disregard the other important human dimension of innovation: culture. Innovation culture refers to values, attitudes and behaviours that can be vital for innovation output but are even more difficult to define and measure than education. Despite these difficulties, the need to effectively understand and assess the impact of human factor on innovation, through both culture and education, is extremely important in order to reinforce the innovation capacity of countries or regions and thereby increase competitiveness and economic growth worldwide. The article provides some rough suggestions, based on the review, about creating a new index that might complement existing ones by assessing culture and education in greater depth. Keywords Innovation . Human capital . Innovation indices . Innovation culture . Innovation climate
Innovation—an Inherently Human Endeavour The term ‘innovation’ is one of the buzzwords of our time. In fact, it has become so popular that it is constantly being abused, especially by people in management or research circles, treated as a filler word without meaningful intent or as a piece of
* George Martinidis [email protected]
1
Department of Urban and Regional Planning and Development, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
J Knowl Econ
popular jargon whose positivity can disguise the poverty of the user’s ideas (Berkun, 2008). Ironically, innovation was not always something that people were so eager to take credit for, as the term has a history of pejorative connotations. Godin (2010) notes the first recorded controversial use of the term, in the mid-1620s, during the turbulent times of the reformation and counter-reformation. Henry Burton, a Puritan minister, used the term to accuse the bishops of the church of England of innovating in matters of church doctrine and discipline. His polemical sermons resulted in him being brought before the court, where his opponents accused Burton himself of innovating. The minister had his ears cut off and was sentenced to life imprisonment (Godin, 2010). In fact, until the eighteenth century, an innovator was a suspicious person that was not to be trusted. The connotations of innovation started to shift from negative to positive only during the eighteenth century, when innovation was used to refer to an originality of authorship or creation, contrasted to copying and plagiar
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