What is engineering innovativeness?

An innovation is the ‘implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), process, marketing method, or organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external relations’. Acting as innovators and as the translators of new or existing technology into innovations that benefit society is the torch that engineers are expected to carry. Multiple vague and overlapping definitions of innovative behavior by engineers lead to much confusion in our society over the role that engineers play or can play in the innovation process. In this paper we explore the innovative behavior of engineers and the relationship of that innovative behavior with the creative, problem solving, design and entrepreneurial behavior of engineers. These different perspectives of defining the innovative behavior of engineers, or, aswe call it, ‘innovativeness’ in engineers, illustrate the societal confusion over the definition of innovative behavior by engineers. The key question that we propose to answer is: ‘What set of intrinsic abilities (skills, knowledge, personality traits, or attributes)when combinedwith domain knowledge, experience and other extrinsic factors enable and inspire engineers to create innovations that benefit society?'