Discussion: What is Innovation? Many businesses are involved in conceptualizing, crystallizing, concretizing, creating, and cultivating innovations. How individuals and organizations communicate about technological innovation is often a key factor in the success or failure of innovation management. It is common for an organization to be lacking a clear description of innovation and how innovation contributes to its strategy and performance. To prepare for this Discussion, review the Learning Resources for this week and conduct further research of innovation models. Select a context for you to consider the nature of innovation, such as startups, small businesses, medium businesses, or large, international businesses. Also consider the role of technology to provide more depth to your chosen context. For example, is technology creation essential, or is it sufficient to apply existing technology? You may wish to consider a real organization or to describe a fictional organization to provide your context more clarity. By Day 3 Post an evaluation of the nature of innovation within your chosen context. In your evaluation, do the following: Describe your chosen context and define innovation. This should not be a generic definition but one tailored to the context. In your definition, also consider these questions and support your responses with sufficient detail and logic: What is the role of innovation? Is innovation market-driven, technology-driven, or a combination approach? What opportunities exist for business model innovation? Evaluate at least three foundational theories that are applicable to your context. You can begin with resources provided this week, but your theories should extend beyond these resources and involve your own research in the Walden Library using recent peer-reviewed sources. For each theory, provide a summary using these section headings: The name of the theory The year the theory was introduced The theorist/author Key components of the theory A statement of how the theory does or does not apply to the organizational context you chose. Be sure to support your work with a minimum of two specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and at least one additional scholarly source.

ASSIGNMENT: For this essay, you will select one of the articles provided below and engage in a 2-3 page summary and response dialogue with the source. This will involve providing a detailed summary of the source's argument and responding to that argument with your position based on the information provided in the source.In order to foster learning and growth, all essays you submit must be newly written specifically for this course. Any recycled work will be sent back with a 0, and you will be given one attempt to redo the Touchstone.Article Option 1: "The Recess Debate: A Disjuncture between Educational Policy and Scientific Research"Article Option 2: "Sugar in School Breakfasts: A School District's Perspective"A. Assignment GuidelinesDIRECTIONS: Refer to the list below throughout the writing process. Do not submit your Touchstone until it meets these guidelines.1. Article Summary❒ Have you communicated the source's purpose?❒ Have you included all of the source's main points?❒ Have you restated the source's argument in your own words?2. Article Response❒ Have you provided your perspective on the source's argument?❒ Have you used specific examples from the source to illustrate why you either agree or disagree with the argument?3. Reflection❒ Have you answered all reflection questions thoughtfully and included insights, observations, and/or examples in all responses?❒ Are your answers included on a separate page below the main assignment?B. Reflection QuestionsDIRECTIONS: Below your assignment, include answers to all of the following reflection questions.What ideas originally came to mind when you first read through the article? Did your initial response to the article change after reading it for a second time? (3-4 sentences)How does paying attention to the way you respond to a source help you formulate your stance on a topic? (2-3 sentencesC. Rubric Advanced (90-100%)Proficient (80-89%)Acceptable (70-79%)Needs Improvement (50-69%)Non-Performance (0-49%)Source SummarySummarize the main argument of a research source.Provides a complete and accurate summary of the article’s main purpose and argument in the writer’s own words.Provides an accurate summary of the article’s main purpose and argument in the writer’s own words.Provides an accurate summary, but relies too heavily on source quotations.Provides an incomplete summary of the article’s main purpose and argument and/or relies too heavily on source quotations.Does not provide a complete and accurate summary of the article’s main purpose and argument in the writer’s own words.Source ResponseArticulate a response to the argument presented in a research source.Constructs a thoughtful and academically appropriate response to the source, including samples from the source that relate to the response.Constructs an academically appropriate response to the source, including samples from the source that relate to the response.Constructs an academically appropriate response to the source, but could include more samples from the source that relate to the response.Constructs a response to the source, but does not include samples that relate to the response.Does not construct an academically appropriate response to the source and/or does not include samples from the source that relate to the response.OrganizationExhibit competent organizational writing techniques.Includes all of the required components of a summary and response essay, including an introduction with an engaging summary of the source's argument, body paragraphs containing a detailed and thoughtful response to the argument, and a conclusion with a concluding statement.Includes all of the required components of a summary and response essay, including an introduction with a summary of the source's argument, body paragraphs containing a response to the argument, and a conclusion with a concluding statement.Includes nearly all of the required components of summary and response essay; however, one component is missing.Includes most of the required components of a summary and response essay, but is lacking two components; sequences ideas and paragraphs such that the connections between ideas (within and between paragraphs) are sometimes unclear and the reader may have difficulty following the progression of the essay.Lacks several or all of the components of a summary and response essay; sequences ideas and paragraphs such that the connections between ideas (within and between paragraphs) are often unclear and the reader has difficulty following the progression of the essay.StyleEstablish a consistent, informative tone and make thoughtful stylistic choices.Demonstrates thoughtful and effective word choices, avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a wide variety of sentence structures.Demonstrates effective word choices, primarily avoids redundancy and imprecise language, and uses a variety of sentence structures.Demonstrates generally effective style choices, but may include occasional redundancies, imprecise language, poor word choice, and/or repetitive sentence structures.Frequently includes poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures.Consistently demonstrates poor word choices, redundancies, imprecise language, and/or repetitive sentence structures.ConventionsFollow conventions for standard written English.There are only a few, if any, negligible errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are occasional minor errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are some significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are frequent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.There are consistent significant errors in grammar, punctuation, spelling, capitalization, formatting, and usage.ReflectionAnswer reflection questions thoroughly and thoughtfully.Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; consistently includes insights, observations, and/or examples in all responses, following or exceeding response length guidelines.Demonstrates thoughtful reflection; includes multiple insights, observations, and/or examples, following response length guidelines.Primarily demonstrates thoughtful reflection, but some responses are lacking in detail or insight; primarily follows response length guidelines.Shows limited reflection; the majority of responses are lacking in detail or insight, with some questions left unanswered or falling short of response length guidelines.No reflection responses are presentD. RequirementsThe following requirements must be met for your submission to be graded:Composition must be 2-3 pages (approximately 500-750 words).Double-space the composition and use one-inch margins.Use a readable 12-point font.All writing must be appropriate for an academic context.Composition must be original and written for this assignment.Plagiarism of any kind is strictly prohibited.Submission must include your name, the name of the course, the date, and the title of your composition.Include all of the assignment components in a single file.Acceptable file formats include .doc and .docx.

DISCUSSION POST 1:Saddened by the death of her favorite aunt, Shannel (age 35) was extremely surprised to learn that she was named her aunt’s only heir. A personal note in the will said “For your own shop.” Shannel and her aunt often visited antique shops, and Shannel’s dream was to own such a shop as a way to occupy her time in early retirement. She is expecting to receive approximately $50,000 and hopes to invest this money for her future shop, but she knows very little about stocks or investment strategies. After discussing financial planning topics with Shannel, the following issues became clear. First, the $50,000 is all the money she has saved for her goal. Second, Shannel is very cautious financially and is fearful of investing all her money at once because she has heard conflicting reports concerning stock valuation. Use your knowledge of common stock classifications and investment strategies to answer the following questions.QuestionsWhich type of stock or combination of stocks would be appropriate for Shannel? Develop your answer in terms of Shannel’s risk tolerance, time frame, and goals.What role should cyclical and defensive stocks play in Shannel’s portfolio?Given Shannel’s fear about current stock valuations, what investment strategy would you recommend for her? Why?Provide Shannel with four reasons to consider using a buy-and-hold strategy.What other personal finance factors should Shannel consider before investing in her antique shop?DISCUSSION POST 2:Stock market volatility is arguably one of the most misunderstood concepts in investing. In simple terms, volatility is the range of price change stocks and bonds experience over a given period of time. If the price stays relatively stable, the security has low volatility. A highly volatile security hits new highs and lows quickly, moves erratically, and has rapid increases and dramatic falls.Because people tend to experience the pain of loss more acutely than the joy of gain, a volatile stock that moves up as often as it does down may still seem like an unnecessarily risky proposition.Have you been watching the stock market lately? Do you invest in a 401k plan or buy stocks in some other manner? How does the wild swings in the stock market and daily news cycle make you feel about stocks and bonds and investing overall? Is investing a good idea? Tell us what you think.