Venerability is the birthplace of Innovation and Creativity
If we are comfortable with what we have we will never opt for betterment. Innovation happened to the people who don't settle for mediocrity. Innovation has become an important word in the twenty-first century, reflecting all that is modern, progressive and exciting in a complex world. Innovation can be defined as the creative application of knowledge to increase the set of techniques and products commercially available in the economy. The essence of the definition of innovation is novelty, in terms of creative ideas that are commercialized within the economic sphere of human activity.[1]For innovation, at the cognitive level there are specific mental qualities, dispositions, intentions and purposes that are reflected in the characteristics of entrepreneurship.
Among the endless characteristics the need for
achievement, the internal locus of control and risk-taking propensity plays a
major role. Enhancement of innovation has become the quintessential feature of
commercial, political, economic and business life. However, the diverse views
and applications of the term innovation have shown very little understanding of
what innovation is all about and how best to enhance its processes for the
common good. An innovation that changes the structure of production generates
an observed traverse. Innovation is central to the study of economics, both in
terms of behavioral processes and economic development. If there is no
innovation, society stagnates. Scarce resources can only be distributed more
effectively by innovation, both organizationally and technologically. Yet,
innovation remains poorly analysed and even more poorly modelled in the
economic 'science'. Major economic thinkers have placed innovation at the
centre of their analysis (e.g., Smith, Marx, Schumpeter), and others have seen
innovation as an important long-run development. A view that innovation cannot
be modelled because its processes are complex, uncertain and therefore
indeterminate has dominated economics. Innovation can only be seen a
posteriori, and this inductivity is unacceptable to economists who see their
'positivist science' as deductivist and objective. In effect, this approach accepts
the current economic phenotype and merely attempts to optimise economic
efficiency of such a realised economic system.
This paper adopts the Oakley human agency analysis to show how a reconstruction of economic theory using a realist ontology can be applied to develop a model of innovation decision-making and action. Oakley models human action by capturing the balance between contingency and containment. This provides the basis for understanding the wide gamut of entrepreneurial activity that can be seen as innovation; from strongly contingent to heavily contained. A three-level perspective of the human agency path (mental approach, procedural rationality, situational analysis) provides an approach to modelling an agent's innovation process. Once this path is appreciated, then Lowe's instrumental analysis can be adopted to transcend the contingency/containment spectrum by seeking the cooperation of entrepreneurs and other agents in the path of innovation and its diffusion towards generally accepted economic goals. This approach recognizes the limitless potentialities of novelty within the economic genotype. It also uses the institutional structures available to alter the preference ordering of economic agents so that the imagination can be focused on innovations that can produce a set of techniques for acceptable goals like ecological sustainability. The Kaleckian perspective planning of investment can be used to support and guide this innovation strategy. With such a process model, the innovation issues and policy debates around what sort of society we want in the future becomes a realist ontological necessity.
This paper adopts the Oakley human agency analysis to show how a reconstruction of economic theory using a realist ontology can be applied to develop a model of innovation decision-making and action. Oakley models human action by capturing the balance between contingency and containment. This provides the basis for understanding the wide gamut of entrepreneurial activity that can be seen as innovation; from strongly contingent to heavily contained. A three-level perspective of the human agency path (mental approach, procedural rationality, situational analysis) provides an approach to modelling an agent's innovation process. Once this path is appreciated, then Lowe's instrumental analysis can be adopted to transcend the contingency/containment spectrum by seeking the cooperation of entrepreneurs and other agents in the path of innovation and its diffusion towards generally accepted economic goals. This approach recognizes the limitless potentialities of novelty within the economic genotype. It also uses the institutional structures available to alter the preference ordering of economic agents so that the imagination can be focused on innovations that can produce a set of techniques for acceptable goals like ecological sustainability. The Kaleckian perspective planning of investment can be used to support and guide this innovation strategy. With such a process model, the innovation issues and policy debates around what sort of society we want in the future becomes a realist ontological necessity.
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