In companies, the innovation means a new product or service, or new manage-
ment practices. Each of these innovations presents the materialization of ideas, i.e.,
their application in practice. For these reasons in the modern market economy, the
rewards mostly belong to the companies that constantly innovate—through the
creation of the new business models and products that are based on technology
development, demographic conditions, and consumer habits. Therefore, there is no
innovation without creativity, but also every creative idea does not have to become
an innovation. It is evident that the creation of new and creative ideas pushes the
company forward and that the absence of the same drives the company in the
opposite direction.
True change and creative processes start by identifying problems or opportuni-
ties. If a company wants to create innovations, then the creativity must be included
in all relevant business processes and trends. On the other hand, if companies want
to understand the customers’individual needs and desires, then close cooperation
between all company levels and team work are needed.
Innovation is a term that is recently promoted not only by the governments of
developed countries but also by the other relevant stakeholders (business, acade-
mia, etc.). Thus, the term is intended to highlight the fact that the global economy is
increasingly dependent on knowledge and communication, as well as to highlight
that improvement in the efficiency, effectiveness, and suitability of products,
processes, and systems at all levels and in all fields is of key importance for
maintaining the competitiveness and providing answers for future challenges.
The successful exploitation of new ideas in science, technology, and manage-
ment practices plays a key role in raising the productivity. The most successful
future companies will be those that stand out in the acquisition and dissemination of
knowledge and its commercial use. On the other hand, the productivity is unsatis-
factory in most of the companies because they fail in taking the possible advantages
of the technology transfer process.
Technology is the main method adopted by the countries which aim is the
economic development and higher living standard of society, and certain technol-
ogy can be very specific or can involve several subprocesses such as production of
particular inputs within the overall production chain.
Kozmetsky defined five important features of technology regarding its nature
and the commercial aspect: it is the constantly upgraded national resource; tech-
nology generates wealth that eventually turns into power (economic, social, and
political); it is a primary factor of domestic productivity and international compet-
itiveness; technology is an initiator of cooperation between the academia, the
business sector, and the government; and technology requires new management
approaches and practices.^1
In accordance with the previously mentioned features of technology, the four
main technology forms can be observed: technology as a general theoretical and
practical understanding of how to do something; technology as products and
(^1) Kozmetsky ( 1990 ).
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