Managing innovation and change processes: Findings from the Minnesota innovation research program

This article describes how innovations develop over time based on findings emerging from seven innovations included in the Minnesota Innovation Research Program. These observations are very different from typical models in the literature of the innovation process. The actual process is fluid, and includes an initial shock to propel the innovation into being, proliferation of the original idea, setbacks and surprises along the way which provide numerous opportunities for learning and failure, and a blending of the old and the new as the innovation is implemented and diffused. This article is one small step in developing descriptively more accurate and useful models of the innovation process based on longitudinal research studies.