Final answer:
Robert Merton's strain theory of deviance identifies the term 'innovation' as the pursuit of conventional goals through unconventional or illegitimate means.
Step-by-step explanation:
Robert Merton's strain theory of deviance uses the term innovation to refer to the process of seeking conventional goals but rejecting conventional means to get there. Merton defined five ways people respond to the gap between having socially accepted goals and lacking socially accepted means to pursue them. Of these, innovation describes people who pursue goals they cannot reach through legitimate means by instead using criminal or deviant means, such as an entrepreneur embezzling funds for a start-up.
In the context of Merton's strain theory, other forms of adaptation include conformity, where individuals pursue their goals via socially accepted means; ritualism, whereby people lower their goals to what they can achieve through accepted methods; retreatism, which involves rejecting societal goals and means; and rebellion, which sees individuals replacing societal goals and means with their own.