Innovation as Market Oriented
Much of our interview data reflected a dominant understanding of innovation as entrepreneurial, western, and tied to commercial success. This corresponds to historical literature on the subject, much of which emphasizes the role of innovation as part of an economic process of invention, development and diffusion. We found few counterpoints to this definition in our interview data, with most of the participants either agreeing with the dominant discourse of innovation as market oriented, or not addressing the market side of the issue at all.
"Commercial"
Dominant Lens“…not until I can, use the technology in a product, that I can commercialize, that’s when the innovation is there…. So otherwise there’s no value, so if I cannot sell it, for people it’s not useful.”
"To me the definition of innovative is creative with a profit. So creativity is turning cash into ideas…innovation is ideas into cash"
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Challenging Lens“This is a person who is very dedicated to ocean and loves the whales. She gets out of her box and thinks in way that other would not. That is what is innovative about it. She is moving beyond herself.”
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The dominant lens of innovation as commercial says that real innovation has to be marketable. Even if an idea or product is new, it's not innovative if it's not commercially successful.
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The counterpoint to this dominant lens doesn't accept that innovation has to be commercially successful. It says that innovation doesn't even have to be useful. It can be based on passion, or simply on change.
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"Entrepreneurial"
Dominant Lens“I think that innovation, and entrepreneurship, I kind of tie those things together in my own thinking... It’s an ethos that you have in you. And. Entrepreneurship, for example, is that, that willingness to just drive after something um and and and not be and to just go after it and not be constrained in in any way. You know, not be told that you can’t do it. Be willing to try 10 or 20 times, you know, to kind of go after that idea go after that go, and your path is going to change as you move towards it. And if you can succeed at that then you’ve probably done something quite innovative.”
This dominant lens says that innovation is synonymous with entrepreneurship. It is associated with ambition and drive. Projects which are truly innovative cannot, by definition, fail. |
Challenging LensInterestingly, we didn't find any counterpoints in our interviews! This could mean that there aren't as many people who disagree with innovation being linked to entrepreneurship...or just that the people who disagree didn't talk about it.
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"Global" / "Western"
Dominant Lens“And innovation definitely has changed the landscape of developing countries that I saw. You can go into a hut situation and they have cell phones, they have access [...] I think that just having technology available in places in the world where five years ago were not available at all, definitely gives more possibility and more prospected growth.”
The dominant lens of innovation says that innovation occurs only in the West. Some interviewees discussed a lack of innovation in non-Western countries, while others mentioned only innovations that were created in Western countries. |
Challenging LensInterestingly, we didn't find any counterpoints in our interviews! This could mean that there aren't as many people who disagree with innovation being linked to Western countries...or just that the people who disagree didn't talk about it.
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The Computational Picture
The images below are "heat maps", which show color-codes that are determined by the frequency of the appearance of words associated with the dominant (blue) or non-dominant (red) ways of speaking about innovation in our interview data. The first is based on data from the longer key informant interviews, while the second shows the data from the microinterviews.
Heat Map of Key Informant Interviews
This map shows that there was variation in how often these key words were used between interviewees. Interestingly, the interviewee who used the non-dominant words more frequently also used the dominant words more frequently. In this case, an example of a "dominant" word would be "commercial," while an example of a non-dominant word would be "communities."
This map shows that there was variation in how often these key words were used between interviewees. Interestingly, the interviewee who used the non-dominant words more frequently also used the dominant words more frequently. In this case, an example of a "dominant" word would be "commercial," while an example of a non-dominant word would be "communities."
Heat Map of Microinterviews
The image above shows a heat map of the forty-three microinterviews. In addition to the color-coding of the words used in each interview, the interview code names along the horizontal axis are underlined with a color corresponding to whether the interview as a whole was classified as dominant (red), non-dominant (blue), or both (green) during qualitative discourse analysis.
The map shows that there is a huge variety in the way that our interviewees talked about innovation, and that the use of specific words may not necessarily correlate to a more general way of talking about innovation. An example of a "dominant" word related to the post above would be "entrepreneur," while a related example of a "non-dominant" word would be "community."
The image above shows a heat map of the forty-three microinterviews. In addition to the color-coding of the words used in each interview, the interview code names along the horizontal axis are underlined with a color corresponding to whether the interview as a whole was classified as dominant (red), non-dominant (blue), or both (green) during qualitative discourse analysis.
The map shows that there is a huge variety in the way that our interviewees talked about innovation, and that the use of specific words may not necessarily correlate to a more general way of talking about innovation. An example of a "dominant" word related to the post above would be "entrepreneur," while a related example of a "non-dominant" word would be "community."