New approaches to the nature determination and classification of the innovations

Abstract

The paper emphasizes the importance of innovation and innovative activities in order to enhance the competitiveness as for particular companies so for countries on the whole. The innovative nature of the economy is considered as the most important mean to enhance the functioning of economic systems, increase the labor productivity, and results in improving the quality of life. The demand and supply side causes of the innovations are identified and steps to ensure success in the global competition by sequence detection "knowledge – innovations – technological superiority – competitive advantage – the strategy and strategic management of the company – success in global competition" are provided by the author. The study sets a stress on the importance of the innovation comprehension for the purpose of effective innovative management. Different views on the concept of innovation of foreign and domestic scientists are also represented. Analysis of their work reveals that the theoretical elaboration of innovations suffers from shortcomings, as evidenced by the lack of a generally accepted definition of innovation. It is revealed that today in the definition of innovation scientists follow one of the two approaches– innovation is seen as the final result of innovative activities or as a process, in which the invention or idea acquire economic content. It is pointed out that the majority of theorists and practitioners adhere to the concept of innovation, adopted in Oslo Manual. Definition of innovation adopted in this document is taken as a basis for the development of the regulatory framework for innovations in Ukraine. The importance of the identifying the types of innovations in clarifying the comprehensive characteristics of innovation, knowledge, understanding common and different with other innovations is indicated. The paper analyzes the multicriteria systematize innovation and on its basis the author's approach to the classification of innovation is proposed. It is concluded that the systematization of the features selection and the creation science-based classification of innovations have quite significant practical importance, thus it has potential ability to give a comprehensive understanding of the characteristics of a particular innovation.