Understanding innovation as change of value systems

Abstract

This paper presents a view of innovation as a process that changes value systems of producers and adopters of creative design ideas. Value systems comprise interpretations of the function and behaviour of an artefact, encapsulated in a producer’s or adopter’s situation. Changes in these value systems can be induced using distinct classes of processes. The paper shows that innovation requires changes in the encapsulated value systems of both producers and adopters, driven by their interactions with the artefact and with each other. This provides the basis for a computational, agent-based framework for testing models of innovation.