  Innovation is a key ingredient for the evolution of several systems,
including social and biological ones. Focused investigations and lateral
thinking may lead to innovation, as well as serendipity and other random
discovery processes. Some individuals are talented at proposing innovation (say
innovators), while others at deeply exploring proposed novelties, at getting
further insights on a theory, or at developing products, services, and so on
(say developers). This separation in terms of innovators and developers raises
an issue of paramount importance: under which conditions a system is able to
maintain innovators? According to a simple model, this work investigates the
evolutionary dynamics that characterize the emergence of innovation. In
particular, we consider a population of innovators and developers, in which
agents form small groups whose composition is crucial for their payoff. The
latter depends on the heterogeneity of the formed groups, on the amount of
innovators they include, and on an award-factor that represents the policy of
the system for promoting innovation. Under the hypothesis that a "mobility"
effect may support the emergence of innovation, we compare the equilibria
reached by our population in different cases. Results confirm the beneficial
role of "mobility", and the emergence of further interesting phenomena.
