Grassroots Innovation and the Scoping of Related Concepts in Innovation Management

Our country is a late starter in grassroots innovation research. However, grassroots innovation is the starting point of the innovation chain in our country and has become indispensable force in technological advancement and social progress. It is the foundation of the social innovation framework. Consequently innovation research has been extended to civil innovation by theoretical researchers and public administrations. However, most papers concentrate on drawing support and attention to grassroots innovation from society and government agencies and the fundamental research on Grassroots innovation is scarce. As a result, the definition of grassroots innovation and the scope of grassroots innovators are still ambiguous. This paper is dedicated to conduct a follow-up research on the definition of grassroots and its related concepts, non-job invention, grassroots innovation and grassroots innovation from innovation management and government policy making perspectives in order to provide the basis for government to create the political mechanism and social atmosphere for grassroots innovation.