How to Define Systems Innovation?
Although my days of getting hung up on precise definitions of things are pretty much over, I have been considering for some time what is the best way to define systems innovation.
I have accumulated a few bits and pieces over the past years as I have been learning about innovation, systems thinking and systems change.
Firstly I know it is different from systems change as for me systems change implies any kind of change to a system while innovation is a specific kind of change.
I have learn that systems thinking is about the way the parts of a system are organized into the whole. The best word I have come across to describe this is the term "protocol" as to me it describes the way the parts interrelate and why they interrelate.
I have learnt that innovation is about the application of new ideas towards creating new configurations that generate new value flows and attract people into new practices that change existing ones.
So today I came across this definition that I think brings a few bits and pieces together for me.
Systems innovation is a change in a system's protocols - how and why the parts interrelate - in order to create new value flows and dimensions of performance for the whole system - and the parts (maybe).
What do you think?
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1 年? "Innovation is creating new value and/or capturing value in a new way.?#value?is the key word, stressing the difference between innovation and invention. The definition is simple, easy to memorize and also good enough to encompass innovation in all the value chain." —? Victor Fernandes, Natura. One of the key arguments in the system innovation literature is that not only are existing technologies and infrastructure a source of lock-in and resistance but the institutionalisation of policy can also be a source of lock-in that constrains the effectiveness of new initiatives. Therefore policy learning is a key dimension of the systems innovation approach to policy. Initiatives are designed and deployed in way to promote learning in the design and monitoring and evaluation of the programmes in order to identify barriers, misalignments and gaps in policy as well as to leverage commitment from different stakeholders. ?? A dynamic multi-level perspective on system innovations: ???? The multi-level perspective (MLP) is a prominent transition framework. The MLP posits that transitions come about through interaction processes within and among three analytical levels: niches, socio-technical regimes and a socio-technical landscape.
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1 年I like your definition Joss. It is simple and clear.
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1 年BTW the idea of innovation as the creation of new dimensions of performance was taken from Peter Drucker?who said "Innovation is change that creates a new dimension of performance." Have been thinking about that for years now, ha
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1 年There's something about perspective to consider, but I don't know how it fits. Maybe, "Systems innovation is an intentional change in a system's protocols - how and why the parts interrelate - to resynthesize the diverse perspectives of its parts and create a new dimension of value." Every time I think of systems I think of Helgoland: "The world fractures into a play of points of view that do not admit of a univocal, global vision. It is a world of perspectives, of manifestations, not of entities with definite properties or unique facts. Properties do not reside in objects, they are bridges between objects. Objects are such only with respect to other objects, they are nodes where bridges meet. The world is a perspectival game, a play of mirrors that exist only as reflections of and in each other." C. Rovelli