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.

Your company is hoping to outsource some of its work constructing a new development of condominiums.  What would you use as selection criteria to narrow down your list of potential sellers? Give specific examples of risks on a project that are within the team’s control, partially within the team’s control, and outside the team’s control. Tell how you would deal with each.  Give two examples of why a project might be terminated early for cause and two examples of why a project might be terminated early for convenience. The sponsor of a large multi-phased project you are managing suddenly decides to terminate the project early.  How do you respond?  How and when do you notify your team members?