innovation

A detailed Summary of innovation

Innovation is the first commercial application/production of new product, process or system. It includes managerial and organizational innovation as well as technological innovation. Innovation can lead to economic growth for a nation, increase the profits of firms, generate new products and markets, safeguard old markets, enlarge the variety of products on offer to the consumer and eventually increase the quality of life.

Some early models of innovation are the 'technology-push' and 'need-pull' models. According to the 'technology-push' model, "discoveries in basic science lead eventually to industrial technological developments which result in a flow of new products and processes to the marketplace". (Rothwell, p.49) In the 'need-pull' model, "innovations arise as the result of a perceived, and often clearly articulated market need".(Rothwell, p.49) Both of these models are only one-sided approaches.

Advocates of 'technology-push' tend to use examples like the laser or the nuclear energy, where there was not any potential market, while advocates of 'need-pull' tend to use examples like the synthetic rubber, which was invented and innovated because of a clearly existing need.

The vast majority of the innovations lies somewher

Innovation is essentially a two-sided or coupling activity. On the one hand it involves the recognition of a potential market. On the other hand it involves technical knowledge. One-sided innovations are much less likely to succeed. The inventors who do not take into account the requirements of the potential market or the costs of their products in relation to the market are likely to fail as innovators. In addition, the inventors who lack the necessary scientific competence to develop a satisfactory product or process will also fail as innovators however good their appreciation of the potential market. The possibility of failure, arises both from the technical uncertainty and from the possibility of misjudging the future market and the competition.(Freeman, p.201-202)

During the 1970s, a project called SAPPHO and was the most influential one, was designed to test innovations. It studied 58 innovations in chemicals and scientific instruments, by comparing them in pairs. The attempts studied, where both successful and unsuccessful. The criterion of success or failure was a commercial one. Often a failure was clear-cut, e.g. a firm went bankrupt, but it was not always simple to make an assessment.(Freeman; 1997)

2. Rothwell, R. and Zegveld, W. (1985), Reindustrialization and technology, Harlow, Essex: Longman, Ch.2, The process of technological innovation: patterns and influences

Larger project teams implied to greater concentration on their project. Also, another diff

Some common words found in the essay are:
, Project Hindsight, Longman Ch2, Freeman Soete, Ch8 Success, Rothwell Zegveld, potential market, success failure, Marquis Myers, Carter Williams, product process, technological innovation, innovation succeed, requirements potential, tend examples, technical knowledge, industrial innovation, successful unsuccessful,

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