Innovation and Entrepreneurship

A Competency Framework

Charles H. Matthews, Ralph Brueggemann, Ralph F. Brueggemann

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780415742528
• eBook ISBN: 9781317802099
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

This book presents a new model, the competency framework, for students, innovators, entrepreneurs, managers, and anyone who wants to better understand the dynamic world of innovation and entrepreneurship.

Focused on both the individual and strategic organizational level, this book is about people and the competencies each person needs to learn to be successful in creating a more dynamic future. Matthews and Brueggemann's framework for innovation and entrepreneurship competencies empowers individuals to excel at innovation and new venture creation.

It provides a practical guide and clear and concise understanding of the knowledge, skills, attitudes, and experiences that are needed to increase imagination, creativity, innovation and new venture creation capability. Innovation and Entrepreneurship will be attractive for students of entrepreneurship, innovation, management and cross-disciplinary classes, such as design thinking.

Presented in a modular format, Innovation & Entrepreneurship informs the future direction of people and technology, as well as the educational systems producing the next generation of innovators and entrepreneurs.

Based on extensive academic research, this book is organized into two sections: Twelve innovation elements and twelve competency categories. The elements are the foundation and the competency categories are the building blocks that inform our path toward a more precise understanding of how innovation and entrepreneurship plays an important role in economic development and our daily lives.

1 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Importance

DOI: 10.4324/9781315813622-1

Early innovations in drawing, writing, and printing were at the forefront of our ability to learn and share knowledge. These early innovations included cave writings, papyrus, the Dead Sea Scrolls, the Gutenberg printing press and moveable type, and recent advancements in electronic publishing. In the 20th century, major innovations have occurred in the areas of science and genomics, transportation, electrification, manufacturing, computerization networking, and much more. Interestingly, with the possible exception of communication and medical diagnostic, pharmacologic, surgical, and instrument development, many of the most important social systems we rely on (e.g., management, education, government, and healthcare) have largely escaped from any major innovative breakthroughs.

Consistently a leader in innovation and entrepreneurship over time, more recent information on global competitiveness and innovation suggests that the United States is not alone when it comes to recognizing the importance of innovation and entrepreneurship. While notable progress has been made on a number of fronts, including medicine and engineering, the United States continues to struggle with an education system showing evidence of decline, a healthcare system that is costly and cumbersome, a natural environment that often suffers from neglect, a government system that has all too often succumbed to partisan politics, and both public and private sector economic systems carrying far too much debt.

Moreover, many of the recent innovations we see worldwide are not initiated by established organizations with large amounts of talent and research and development labs, but rather from dedicated, determined, and driven entrepreneurs who ideate and innovate big ideas to create new ventures that tap underserved and/or unserved existing and new markets.¹ Ventures such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Garmin Bank, Google, GoPro, Kickstarter, Whole Foods, Wikipedia, Zipcar in North America; Virgin Enterprises, Hamilton Bradshaw, Digital Champion, Specsavers in the United Kingdom; Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, Xiaomi, and Dream City in China as well as other innovative start-ups in the Asia Pacific region, are just a few among many leaders in this innovation and entrepreneurship revolution.

If innovation and entrepreneurship is the right model for the future, how are we to develop a viable method to ensure the next generation of innovators, entrepreneurs, and leaders can successfully pursue their dreams and aspirations? Do we know the most effective competencies for our future workforce to learn that will enable them to solve the big problems that we face? Are we underutilizing our present and future talent? Are we looking out for those who will be following us by developing their creative skills?

In this chapter, we examine the importance of competencies; as well as review and outline the role of core and distinctive competencies in U.S. and global competitiveness. We also discuss improving competitiveness and the critical aspects of creativity, innovation, and entrepreneurship. We look at education as a key driver of innovation and entrepreneurship. We review several learning models that inform development of our innovation and competency model that enhances current and future firm competitiveness.

The Importance of Competencies

For any organization, and for new start-ups in particular, from for-profit ventures to not-for-profit ventures, it is important to achieve a level of competence (what needs to be done well) in order to survive and thrive. As an organization or business venture, at a minimum you need to achieve one competence or internal action that you do better than other activities in your internal value chain. This minimal level of competence allows a venture to be effective and efficient in the delivery of goods and/or services. C. K. Prahalad and Gary Hamel took this concept one step further by identifying what they termed the need for a “core competence” of the corporation. That is, a firm must not only have a competence, but a core competence that is central to the venture's strategy, competitiveness, and ultimately its profitability. In addition to core competences, which are internal to the venture, a distinctive competence is something that a venture does in its value chain better than any of its competitors.² In order to drive innovation and entrepreneurship, we need a better understanding of the role competence and competency play in building a viable Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competency Framework.

Competency

What is the difference between a competency and competence? In general, a competency is the necessary criteria for a competence. There are individual and collective competencies:

• Individual competencies are the combination of learnable behaviors that encompass attitudes (wanting to do), skills (how to do), knowledge (what to do), practical experiences (proven learning), and natural talents of a person in order to effectively accomplish an explicit goal within a specific context.
• Collective competencies are the synergistic combination of the individual competencies of team members within organizations.³ There is a continuum that exists from low-functioning teams to high-functioning teams. High-functioning teams, although very rare, are those that apply collective competencies the most effectively.

Competence

Essentially, you learn or gain competencies in order to meet or exceed a level of competence. A competence is the ability to accomplish a work task up to a recognized standard for a particular p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Foreword
• Introduction
• 1 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Importance
• 2 The Elements of Innovation
• 3 Innovation and Entrepreneurship Competencies
• 4 Innovative Behaviors
• 5 Innovation and Thinking
• 6 Problem Solving
• 7 Knowledge Building
• 8 Creativity Insights
• 9 Culture Building
• 10 Innovation Theory
• 11 Entrepreneurship
• 12 Innovation Strategy
• 13 Catalytic Leadership
• 14 Ecosystems Interdependencies
• 15 Technology Accelerators
• 16 The Importance of Intellectual Property
• 17 Applying Innovation Processes
• 18 Creating a Learning Architecture
• About the Authors
• Index