Situated novelty: Introducing a process perspective on the study of innovation

•We introduce a process ontology into the study of healthcare innovation.•We show how actors assign different meanings to innovation than ‘novelty’.•We show how work in innovation projects constitutes what an innovation is.•We propose ‘situated novelty’ as an alternative notion to study innovations.•We describe how our findings have an impact on the management of innovation. This paper introduces a process perspective to innovation studies to answer the research question: What is innovation and how are different meanings ascribed to it in a healthcare setting? Drawing on four ethnographic case studies of projects in a public-funded innovation program in rehabilitation care in the Netherlands, we challenge some well-known assumptions about innovation that have long inspired traditional understandings of innovation. The findings are based on data derived from observations and interviews with managers, project leaders, and (para) medical professionals involved in the four innovation projects. The results indicate that (1) people often assign other meanings to innovation than mere ‘novelty’; (2) that innovation usually entails extensive work that also constructs the value of an innovation; and (3) this has major implications for the management of innovation in organizational practice. This paper builds an argument for introducing an alternative ontological perspective on innovation based upon the notion of ‘situated novelty’. In proposing the contextual perspective, we aim to extend current understanding of innovation processes.