Use of Contact Form in Development of Prosumer Innovations

Concept Of Innovation

Innovations have played a significant part in social and economic development for several centuries. They are associated most often with progress and modernity, and their diffusion into the realm of the practical operations contributes to economic development. As a rule, enterprises treat them as a permanent part of the market game, strengthening implementation and realization of modern projects and favorable improvement of their competitive position (Firlej, 2014, p. 50; Pachura, 2012, pp. 122-129).

Origins of innovation can be identified back in time in the middle of the 18^th century, when the First Industrial Revolution has taken place, and when innovation was implemented in the textile industry. Subsequent century - 19^th is often cited in the literature as the “century of innovation”. This is because the number of innovations at that time was unprecedented by any other period in past regardless of the place on earth or scale of civilization development. According to W. Kwaśnicki (2015, p. 1), the greatest innovation of the 19^th century was institutionalization of the search for innovation. However, it was not until the early 20^th century that, thanks to the work of Joseph A. Schumpeter, especially the Theory of Economic Development (Theorie der wirtschaftlichen Entwicklung), published in 1911, some researchers realized that innovation has been the basis of civilization development. On the other hand, it must be underlined, that Schumpeter's theses were not universally accepted at first, and only Robert Solow's groundbreaking work published in 1957 (Solow, 1957, pp. 312-320) contributed to the thesis that technological progress (knowledge development) is the greatest force driving economy (for Kwaśnicki, 2015, p. 2). According to the definition of J.A. Schumpeter, innovation is “a process of transforming existing possibilities into new ideas and implementing them into practical use, introducing new goods which are new for consumers or new kind of goods; introduction of a new production method practically unproven in a particular industry; opening up of a new market, i.e. one in which a given type of domestic industry has not previously operate, regardless of whether the market existed before or not; gaining a new source of raw materials or semi-finished products regardless of whether the source already existed or had to be created; introduction of a new organization of an industry, such as the introduction of monopoly or breaking one” (Schumpeter, 1960). Above-mentioned definition is one of the most often quoted in the literature on the topic. It should be underlined that Schumpeter had limited his understanding of innovation to commercialization of a new product or implementation of a new process. He appreciated the significance of knowledge, but at the same time he did not consider and research on relations between innovation and knowledge, because at the beginning of the 20^th century the basic factors of production were land, capital and work. Knowledge and information were not as significant as they are nowadays (Lemanowicz, 2014, p. 307).