Radical and Incremental Innovations: Difficulties in Definition and Differentiation

Abstract

The differentiation of innovation into radical and incremental is widespread in the economic literature. It seems simple at first glance, but it is not. Firstly, researchers focus on different features to distinguish these types of innovations. In other words, there is a variety of approaches to the definition of these innovations. Secondly, the proposed characteristics are often subjective. Thirdly, the difficulties in measuring radical and incremental innovations are related to the methodology for collecting relevant statistical data. Thus, the lack of a clear and consistent theoretical and methodological framework does not allow clear understandingof the incremental or radical nature of the innovation activities results and exact assessment of these results. However, researchers are not always given sufficient attention to these difficulties. This paper is devoted to the analysis of key issues that make it difficult to distinguish between incremental and radical innovations.