Innovation Traps: Risks and Challenges in Thinking About Innovation

Introduction This article highlights three kinds of traps innovators face in thinking about and implementing innovations – at the level of thinking, at the level of theories, and at the level of practice. Conceptualizing innovation is bounded by many of the same problems that bracket thinking about any other social activity. It also confronts some unique challenges. This essay starts by addressing potential fallacies people may become guilty of in thinking generally or about social activities. Next, the article examines a framework for thinking about social activity that demonstrates there are more ways of looking at innovation than those predominant in North American thinking and public administration thinking today. It then specifically discusses innovation biases, problems and dilemmas faced by researchers conducting studies about the practice of innovation and by public servants contemplating the concrete decision whether or not to introduce an innovation. It concludes that challenges to thinking well about innovation can be overcome.