Innovations vs. Traditions: Notion, Essence, and Opposition Depending on Economic Systems’ Financial Position

Purpose: Solving the problem of uncertainty of the economic consequences of the traditional and innovative societies, which hinders justified decisions in the sphere of traditions and innovations during state and corporate management, through specification of the economic essence and notions of innovations and traditions, as well as opposing traditional and innovative societiees from the positions of economic consequences depending on the economic systems’ financial position. Design/methodology/approach: Comparative analysis and correlation analysis are used for finding the differences in the value of the Global Competitiveness Index 4.0, happiness index, and sustainable development index, as well as differences in their correlation with the Global Innovation Index in innovative economies (developed and developing countries with the highest values of the Global Innovation Index) and traditional economies (developing countries with low values of the Global Innovation Index). The research is performed based on the data as of early 2020. Findings: The authors find substantial differences in the consequences of innovations management in the traditional and innovative economies by the level of The Global Competitiveness Index 4.0, level of society’s happiness, and sustainability of development depending on the economic systems’ financial position. Also, differences in dependence of these characteristics on innovations management are found. Originality/value: It is determined that innovations in economics (unlike other socio-humanitarian sciences) are not directly opposite to traditions, but have a lot of common features. In particular, traditions and innovations are the strategic tools of state and corporate management socio-economic systems’ management. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.