The History of Innovation

“I call my invention ‘the Wheel’ but so far I’ve been unable to attract any venture capital.”

Innovation is defined as the act of introducing something new or doing something in a different way and taking those new ideas and actually implementing them in the marketplace. While innovation has existed as long as the species has, early innovations penetrated society and became established more slowly. For example, printing technology, various transportation innovations, and the use of gunpowder took centuries to reach most levels of society and become part of everyday life, according to Basil Blackwell and Samuel Eilon, authors of The Global Challenge of Innovation.

Innovation usually results from trial-and-error experimentation and sometimes occurs incidentally where researchers produce something other than what they intended. Nevertheless, because of the growth of and accessibility to knowledge and information through the technology and information revolutions, researchers of the late 20th century generally could move from ideas to innovations much more quickly than their predecessors. A confluence of factors contributes to innovation in the business setting, including the research environment, market need, company strategy, and company resources.

The penetration and acceptance of various innovations began to accelerate with the gradual collaboration and cooperation of science and assorted crafts and industries, especially in the 19th century. The partnership between science and industry allowed scientists to produce practical, reproducible technologies, which businesses could reasonably afford. Because of this collaboration, innovation grew quickly resulting in some companies creating in-house research and development divisions assert Blackwell and Eilon. The scholars view this development as a precursor for the emergence of the “Triple-Helix” model of innovation which entails the involvement of (1) the private sector, (2) the public sector and (3) the academic institutions. The benefit of this kind of set up is that the three different sectors can nurture each other to meet the needs and the challenges in the society. The Botswana Innovation Hub has adopted this concept in that the company is owned and initiated by the government having private sector partners and investors as well as a buy in and involvement of mainly the University of Botswana.