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“创新”是时下的一个热词，我们经常在各大媒体新闻中见到有关“创新”的身影。那么“创新”是一个新鲜名词吗？
"Innovation" is a hot word nowadays. We often see the figure of "innovation" in major media news. Is "innovation" a new word?
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实际上，在1912年， “创新”这一概念就被美籍奥地利经济学家约瑟夫•艾罗斯•熊彼特在其著作《经济发展理论》中首先提出。在这本书中，他把创新定义为：企业家实行对生产要素的新的组合。包括“引入一种新产品或提供一种产品的新质量,采用一种新的生产方式;开辟一个新市场,获得一种原料或半产品的新来源，实行一种新的企业组织形式。”
In fact, in 1912, the concept of "innovation" was first put forward by American Austrian economist Joseph Alois Schumpeter in his book “The Theory of Economic Development”. In this book, he defined innovation as: entrepreneurs implement a new combination of production factors. Including "introducing a new product or providing a new quality of a product, adopting a new mode of production; opening up a new market, obtaining a new source of raw materials or semi-finished products, and implementing a new form of enterprise organization."
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按照熊彼特这一概念,创新包括技术创新与组织管理上的创新，因为它们都可导致生产要素的变化。那什么又是“技术创新”呢？
According to Schumpeter's concept, innovation includes technological innovation and organizational management innovation, because they can lead to changes in production factors. So what is "technological innovation"?
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经过几十年的发展，技术创新至今也没有一个统一的定义。这主要是因为技术创新是一个涉及面很广，影响很大，而且又十分复杂的过程,因此从不同角度去研究，就会赋予技术创新以不同的定义。以下是国内外关于“技术创新”的几种代表性定义:
After decades of development, there is no unified definition of technological innovation. This is mainly because technological innovation is a wide-ranging, influential and complex process. Therefore, if we study it from different angles, we will give different definitions to technological innovation. The following are several representative definitions of "technological innovation" at home and abroad:
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（1）美国经济学家爱德温·曼斯菲尔德将技术创新定义为“第一次引进一个新产品或新过程所包含的技术、设计、生产、财务、管理和市场诸步骤”。
(1) Edwin Mansfield, an American economist, defined technological innovation as "the steps of technology, design, production, finance, management and market involved in the first introduction of a new product or process".
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（2）美国国会图书馆研究部将技术创新定义为“是一个从新产品或新工艺设想的产生到市场应用的完整过程。它包括新设想产生、研究、开发、商业化生产到扩散等一系列的活动”。
(2) The Research Department of the Library of Congress defined technological innovation as "a complete process from the generation of new products or new process ideas to market application. It includes a series of activities, such as: the generation, research, development, commercial production and diffusion of new ideas".
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（3）经济合作与发展组织(OECD)则把技术创新界定为包括新产品和新工艺,以及产品和工艺的显著的技术变化。
(3) The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) defined technological innovation as new products and new processes, as well as significant technological changes in products and processes.
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（4）柏林科学技术研究院提出：技术创新是指将一种新产品或新的生产工艺引入市场。
(4) The Berlin Institute of Science and Technology put forward that technological innovation referred to the introduction of a new product or new production process into the market.
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（5）清华大学傅家骥教授等认为， “当一种新思想和非连续的技术活动，经过一段时间后，发展到实际和成功商业应用的程序，就是技术创新。”简单地讲，技术创新就是技术变为商品并在市场上销售得以实现其价值,从而获得经济效益的过程和行为。
(5) Professor Fu Jiaji of Tsinghua University and others believe that "when a new idea and discontinuous technological activity develop into a practical and successful commercial application program after a period of time, it is technological innovation." in short, technological innovation is the process and behavior that technology becomes a commodity and is sold in the market to realize its value, so as to obtain economic benefits.
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而我国关于技术创新的官方定义是由中共中央、国务院发布的《关于加强技术创新、发展高科技、实现产业化的决定》中提出的：技术创新是应用创新的知识和新技术、新工艺、采用新的生产方式和经营管理模式，提高产品质量，开发生产新的产品，提供新的服务，占据市场并实现市场价值。
The official definition of technological innovation in China was put forward in theDecision on Strengthening Technological Innovation, Developing High Technology and Realizing Industrializationissued by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council: technological innovation is the application of innovative knowledge, new technologies and processes, the adoption of new production methods and management modes, the improvement of product quality, the development and production of new products and the provision of new services, to occupy the market and realize market value.
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由以上定义我们可以看出，技术创新实际上包含着以下五部分:
From the above definitions, we can see that technological innovation actually includes the following five parts:
(1)开发生产新的产品。
(1) Develop and produce new products.
(2）采用新的生产方式或新工艺。
(2) Adopt new production methods or new processes.
(3）开辟新的市场。
(3) Open up new markets.
(4）提供新的服务。
(4) Provide new services.
(5）采用新的经营管理模式。
(5) Adopt a new operation and management mode.
我们可以把“开发生产新的产品”和“采用新的生产方式或新工艺”的创新称为“狭义技术创新”。而上述较宽泛的创新称为“广义技术创新”。
We can call the innovation of "developing and producing new products" and "adopting new production methods or new processes" as "narrow technological innovation", while the above broader innovation is called "broad technological innovation".
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技术创新这一活动主要有以下三个方面的特点：
The activity of technological innovation mainly has the following three characteristics:
(1)技术创新是高风险的活动
(1) Technological innovation is a high-risk activity
技术创新涉及许多相关环节和众多影响因素,从而使得创新的结果呈现随机性，这意味着技术创新带有较大的风险性。事实上，计多企业的产品开发成功率往往都较小，即使在西方发达国家，比如美国,企业产品的开发成功率也只有20%~30%。
Technological innovation involves many related links and many influencing factors, which make the results of innovation random, and this means that technological innovation carries great risks. In fact, the success rate of product development of many enterprises is often small. Even in western developed countries, such as: the United States, the success rate of enterprise product development is only 20% to 30%.
除此之外，技术创新需要大量的资金投入，例如，我国在研发经费投入方面保持高速增长， 2019年达2.21万亿元。这些投入能否顺利实现价值补偿,则受到许多不确定因素的影响，既有来自技术本身的不确定性,也有来自市场、社会、政治等的不确定性,这就可能使技术创新的投入难以得到回报。
In addition, technological innovation requires a lot of capital investment. For example, China's R&D investment has maintained a rapid growth, reaching 2.21 trillion Yuan in 2019. Whether these investments can successfully realize value compensation is affected by many uncertain factors, both from the uncertainty of technology itself and from the uncertainty of market, society and politics, which may make the investment in technology innovation very difficult to obtain return.
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(2)技术创新可使创新的企业和个人获取高额利润
(2) Technological innovation can enable innovative enterprises and individuals to obtain high profits
一般说来,在经济活动中高风险与高收益是并存的,技术创新活动也是如此。也就是说，尽管技术创新成功率较低，但成功后可获取的利润是相当可观的。据统计，有20%左右的成功率可收回技术创新的全部投入并取得可观的利润。正因为如此，世界上许多国家成立了风险投资银行，向技术创新提供风险性贷款，促进技术创新。
Generally speaking, high risk and high return coexist in economic activities, and so do technological innovation activities. That is to say, although the success rate of technological innovation is low, the profits that can be obtained after success are considerable. According to statistics, about 20% of the success rate can recover all the investment in technological innovation and make considerable profits. Because of this, many countries in the world have established venture capital banks to provide risk loans to technological innovation and promote technological innovation.
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(3）技术创新具有创造性或先进性
(3) Technological innovation is creative or advanced.
技术创新的创造性或先进性表现在所应用的技术是前所未有的新技术，或者是现有技术中的某些改进，从而使旧技术更加完善,应用效果有明显的提高。
The creativity or advanced nature of technological innovation is manifested in the hitherto unknown technology and some improvements in existing technologies, which make the old technology more perfect and the application effect improved significantly.
技术创新正在逐渐改变世界，改变生活，例如：中国高铁、移动支付、移动医疗、在线教育、5G通讯等新科技、新模式正在让我们的生活变得更便捷、更美好。
Technological innovation is gradually changing the world and life. For example, new technologies and models, such as: China's high-speed railway, mobile payment, mobile medical, online education and 5g communication are making our life more convenient and better.
