Abstract:

Human beings have experienced a continuous change during the transition periods from nomadism to agricultural society, from agricultural society to industrial society and industrial society to postindustrial society. Despite the continuity of change, differences have been observed in the speed and quality of the change. This differentiation has especially been observable and perceivable after innovation took the place of the traditions. While the transition followed a very slow progress, it gained great speed with the industrial revolution. In the long process of laying the foundations of the industrial revolution that started in the middle of the 18th century, many innovations have emerged. Acceptance of innovations has not been easy. Commitment to tradition has led to the occurrence of traditionalism attitude against innovations. Traditionalism has been an attitude towards preventing the change in contrast to traditional approach which emphasizes the gradual change and continuity. The beliefs about the experience and superiority of the old has caused looking innovations suspiciously. Old has been accepted just for being old, on the other hand innovation has been rejected just for the concern of disrupting the traditional structure. Although the tradition and innovation conflict has occurred, after the spread of innovations, innovativeness has started to be dominant and eventually an innovative culture has emerged. The innovative cultural climate has contributed many innovations to flourish rapidly. The resistance of traditions against innovation has been broken and innovativeness has turned into a target. In this frame, innovativeness which is the engine of revolutions and competitive advantage is the focus of our article. In this article, the transition from traditionalism to innovativeness in the development process of the West has been tried to be explained based on the researches and comments made on the topic.

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