Innovation

Innovation is the actual application of ideas that result in the introduction of new products or services, or the betterment of the way existing goods or services are offered. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) Technical Committee 279 defines innovation as "a new or modified entity realising or dispersing value." The definitions of others vary; nevertheless, a common feature in all of the definitions is an emphasis on the freshness, improvement, and dissemination of ideas or technology.

Innovation often occurs as a result of the creation of more-effective goods, processes, services, technologies, art works, or business models, which innovators make accessible to markets, governments, and the general public. However, innovation differs from invention in that it is more likely to include the practical application of an invention (i.e. new or enhanced capacity to have an effect in the market or society), and not all innovations require the development of a new invention.

A common way in which technical innovation expresses itself is via the engineering process when the issue to be addressed is of a technical or scientific character. Exnovation is a term that refers to the antithesis of innovation.