The Concept of Dichotomy of the Innovation Process in an Enterprise

The article presents selected, more important definitions of innovation in an enterprise, paying attention to those of them which emphasize its immaterial character. It describes models of the innovation process, concepts of the innovativeness system and models of the innovative activity of a firm. It was found out that the elements of these objects are a coherent entirety. The principle of the presented research approach is the paradigm assigned to Schumpeter of merging various activities within the innovation process. It turned out, however, that an attempt to implement such a broad programme, namely the invention and the imitation of innovation, often ends in failure. The reason is that we cannot recognize the tools of analysis and define the determinants of the innovation process in the comprehensive Schumpeterian approach, however, we can resolve these issues by studying each fragment of this processes of innovative character. The aim of the article is to present the concept of the dichotomy of the innovation process in an enterprise and indicate the way of using it in practice. Two autonomous processes, crucial for the development of innovativeness, are distinguished in this concept, namely the process of innovation invention in its immaterial form and the process of innovation implementation which has got material and immaterial character. In the strategy of an organization it is necessary to define the object and the scope of analysis, at the same time considering the level of innovation ability of an enterprise; in a creative industry they may specialize in creating ideas, designing novelties and offering innovative projects to an appropriately selected target group. Traditional firms should develop and implement these projects in practice to the benefit of customers. It should be emphasized that the choice of the subject of innovative activity determines the innovation ability of the organization, the ability to manage innovative projects and the use of modern (agile) management methods, as well as management pragmatics. The article is of theoretical and empirical character. To achieve the aim and verify the theses, following research methods were used: literature analysis, impact factor analysis, professional conversations with experts.