The management of innovation in the context of structural funds

As a decisive factor in the existing economic competition in a world increasingly globalized, a market accessible through digitisation and unprecedented information speed, innovation has become the key objective that makes the difference between “to be” or “not to be” for every economic actor who aims to play a leading role on the market. Innovation has become a concept so widely spread that one cannot conceive the success of a business without this factor, whether we are talking about the innovation of a product, process or service or marketing and organization structure. Innovation has also became a key concept for public insitutions that intend to keep up with developments in technology, under the pressure from a society increasingly more connected to technology. The European Union promotes the concept of innovation at the center of the development strategy for the economic sector, thus generating the vision that governs three key tools: Research framework program, the cohesion policy and the framework program for competitiveness and innovation. In the present study we start from the definition of the concept of innovation. We approach the notion of innovative management perspective in the context of accessing European funding programs. Ultimately, the purpose of innovation management is the efficiency of innovative economic activity, i.e. in increasing productivity in balance with the principles of sustainable development. European funding programs stimulate the innovation management in entrepreneurship, public institutions and NGOs, whether we are talking about innovation in the economic field, at the level of social services or in the field of public services.