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Innovation Management: Educational Aspects
Innovation is one of the most important concepts that appear in the literature devoted to management and economics in recent years. This is connected with changes that occur as a result of implementing innovation in a knowledge-based economy. Innovation is such an important matter that support for it is considered both at the level of central and regional institutions (macro- and meso-level) and at enterprise level (microeconomic level). This publication focuses on discussing innovation at enterprise level, and because of the great importance of information and communication technology in the modern economy, most of the chapters are devoted to marketing innovation on the Internet. This monograph is intended for all those who are interested in the teaching aspect of innovation management, especially for students and faculty members involved in programmes and specializations devoted to innovation; managers who are interested in the behaviour of Internet users and other consumers; as well as people who want to broaden their knowledge with regard to economic innovation. The first chapter, devoted to entrepreneurship, contains a synthetic presentation of approaches to defining entrepreneurship in economic theory and delineates the relationships that exist between entrepreneurship and innovation, both in the context of the risk taken by an entrepreneur and in the context of the entrepreneurial process, which is inextricably connected with all instances of innovation. The second chapter discusses the significance of the triple helix model in local innovation systems. It shows the importance of bilateral and trilateral relationships in the university-business-government system; which in the case of open innovation are essential to reduce the risks involved in implementing innovations. The third chapter is devoted to consumer behaviour, which is an important factor that must be considered when initiating and developing the innovation process. The author presents scientific findings relating to consumer behaviour, defines the basic processes involved in this behaviour, as well as discussing trends in consumer behaviour, illustrated with numerous examples. The fourth chapter discusses the principles of innovative product management. The author defines the general concept and the types of products, innovation and innovation processes, as well as delineating the most important features of the innovation process. Particular attention is given to methods of dealing with the most difficult stage of the innovation process, referred to as the “valley of death”. In the fifth chapter, which concerns innovative brands, the author focuses on the significance of customer’s experiences in the process of building a relationship with a brand. The chapter concludes with an example of using sensory marketing in the business model implemented at Starbucks. The sixth chapter, devoted to marketing control, presents the metrics for measuring the effectiveness of marketing activities. It describes the basic principles of marketing control, discusses the assessment of marketing at the strategic level, as well as presenting a set of indicators which are useful for the evaluation of sales and distribution management and for the assessment of marketing communications, with particular emphasis on measuring the performance of online marketing. The next three chapters relate directly to marketing innovation on the Internet. In chapter seven, devoted to e-commerce, after defining the basic concepts, the author discusses the business models that dominate in online activities as well as indicating the basic forms of organization in electronic commerce. Chapter eight deals with building a marketing strategy on social media, including multi-channel communication. The author describes the process of building a community around a brand, indicates actions designed to generate consumer engagement, and discusses ways of collecting data about the recipients on social media. In chapter nine, the issue of creating value for customers in e-commerce is discussed. The author shows how this value changes in different phases of the life cycle of relationships with customers in online retailing, describes the activities characteristic to each stage of the cycle, and presents techniques which are useful in building relationships with customers. The tenth and final chapter may be useful for people who conduct classes in English. It is devoted to the use of metaphors as a teaching tool and a means for conceptualization. The chapter discusses the significance of metaphors in teaching English and gives examples of some useful metaphors connected with football which can help in conducting classes for a group of English-speaking students, as well as presenting metaphor models in academic English. This monograph is a result of the project “Innovation Management – an English-language Master’s programme supported by modern information technologies,” number FSS/2014/HEI/W/0095, funded by the Foundation for the Development of the Education System and implemented under the Measure Development of Polish Higher Education Institutions, as well as research conducted in the Faculty of Management at the Poznań University of Economics, primarily by the staff of the Department of Trade and Marketing
