Introduction [special issue on complexity and innovation.]

The study of systematic innovation is rife with conceptual contradictions. Instructions are usually deceptively simple: start the process with scanning and searching for opportunities, then proceed to strategically electing possible pathways, to resourcing selected options and finally to implementing the chosen innovation (Tidd et al. 2001). Gaps and difficulties appear as soon as one begins asking questions like who is to start and why, how progress is to be monitored, what happens to competitors, etc. There also is the question of position. To an outsider innovation may appear as one big jump in thinking, making a clear cut distinction between old and new, however from an internal member’s perspective innovation is the evolution of practice – the practice of implementation consisting of numerous, small jumps in thinking.

Special issue on complexity and innovation.