Innovation quality - a conceptual framework

In this article a framework for a new concept-that of innovation quality-is presented and its relevance for considerations with respect to innovation and strategy is highlighted. The concept of innovation quality allows making a statement regarding the aggregated innovation performance in three different domains within an organization by comparing the result, being it a product, process or service innovation, with the potential and considering the process on how the result has been achieved. The three domains of innovation quality are product/service, process and enterprise. After analyzing the foundation concepts of quality and innovation a short interpretation of the concept of "innovation quality" in contrast to "quality innovation" is given. In the second large section of this article the principle of innovation quality is presented, possibilities of determining and representing the concept are shown and a strong link among innovation quality and strategy is suggested. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.