Innovation: the modern approach of Western authors in the context of the Russian experience

Institute of Social Sciences of National Academy of Sciences, Belarus

The aim of the present paper was to analyse how innovation is defined by modern western authors and what approach to the subject of innovations is preferable among them. The analysis is based upon some papers written by authors from Ireland, Canada and the USA and published in the journal «Tertiary education and management».

Looking at these papers, one can conclude that the western authors’ approach is pragmatic and utilitarian and, conceptually, it’s connected with the term «a knowledge-based economy»: innovation is generally defined as a process through which new economic and social benefits are extracted from skills and knowledge to produce new or improved products and services.

One of the key items necessary to ensure an innovative development was also analysed, namely research and scientific development within higher education institutions.

Key words: innovation, a knowledge-based economy, research work within higher education institutions, research universities, leadership

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