Layman's description

Innovation can refer to the development of entirely new elements in a system, their diffusion across the globe, or deep impacts of such approaches. Innovation can be a product of innovating – “a thing newly introduced” – or it can relate to the act of innovating – “the introduction of a new thing; the alteration of something established”. A distinction is commonly made between fairly minor improvements and adjustments, and much rarer and more fundamental changes. The perception of how fundamental changes are actually, is context-specific , thus begging the question which context should be the referent. Also, how should innovation be assessed, if one wants to sidestep the overly simple view that it is inherently good or bad?