Week 4

Title:

Database:

Innovation. By: Harper, Gavin D. J., MSc, Salem Press

Encyclopedia, 2019

Research Starters

Innovation

Related Information

Listen American Accent

Global rankings of innovation

cities worldwide by independent

innovation agency 2thinknow, as

published in 2007. By 2thinknow

(Own work) [GFDL

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Innovation is the process of developing and bringing to market new products, services, ideas,

or solutions to problems. This is in contrast to invention, which is the development of new

devices, methods, or techniques. Inventions are not necessarily innovations. For an invention

to be an innovation, it must be introduced into the marketplace and become generally

accepted.

Technology is intricately linked to the state of society

and quality of life. Understanding innovation is not just a

question of understanding business and technology, but

it is also how society responds to technological change

and the nature of socio-technical systems.

Overview

Developing innovative products can be expensive, and

success is far from guaranteed; as many as 75 percent

of new products introduced into the marketplace fail.

However, the cost of not being innovative can be just as

high; many companies fail as a result of being overtaken

in the marketplace by competitors with more innovative

products and services. Thus, understanding innovation

is important to ensure business success.

The earliest literature described the process of

innovation as linear. Invention led to innovation, which

then led to diffusion (the process of the innovation spreading through the marketplace). Linear

models of innovation are open to many critiques because they are so basic, yet some believe

this simplicity is an asset. One of the earliest models of innovation was that of “technology

push,” whereby a manufacturer developed a product with capabilities not then available in the

marketplace. This innovation would arise from improvements in basic science and technology,

which in turn led to developing, manufacturing, and selling a new design. A later but still

simple linear model of innovation was that of “market pull.” Here, the innovator responds to an

existing need in the marketplace. By researching this need, new products could be

developed, manufactured, and sold into the market. From this early base, many more

sophisticated models of innovation have been developed.

The “S curve,” also known as a diffusion curve, is a concept that explains the life cycle of an

innovation. Innovations have a life cycle that runs from their debut on the market to their

replacement by newer innovations. Scholars of innovation are interested in how innovations

are adopted and what sort of consumers will use the technology at each stage of its life cycle.

Understanding these market segments is imperative to successfully marketing innovations.

The technology adoption life cycle model, developed by Everett Rogers, is a bell-shaped

curve, divided into five segments labeled innovators, early adopters, early majority, late

majority, and laggards. Each segment has its own profile.

Geoffrey Moore, a well-known Silicon Valley technology consultant, advanced a variation of

this model. He suggested that one of the biggest challenges is transitioning an innovation

from the early adopters to the early majority; he calls this leap “the chasm.”

While innovation can be physical—a new device or invention is successfully introduced to the

marketplace, for example—it can also be “soft,” that is, delivering enhanced outputs by

reconfiguring the way companies do business. Such innovations are sometimes called

business model innovations, as opposed to the more conventional technological innovations.

Bibliography

Betz, Frederick, Managing Technological Innovation: Competitive Advantage from Change.

3rd ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2011. Print.

Christenson, Clayton M. The Innovator’s Dilemma: The Revolutionary Book That Will Change

the Way You Do Business. New York: HarperBusiness, 2011. Print.

Godin, Benoit. “The Linear Model of Innovation: The Historical Construction of an Analytical

Framework.” Science, Technology & Human Values 31 (2006): 639–67. Print.

Keeley, Larry, Helen Walters, Ryan Pikkel, and Brian Quinn. Ten Types of Innovation: The

Discipline of Building Breakthroughs. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Print.

Moore, Geoffrey A. Crossing the Chasm: Marketing and Selling Disruptive Products to

Mainstream Customers. Rev. ed. New York: HarperBusiness, 2002. Print.

Osterwalder, Alexander, and Yves Pigneur. Business Model Generation: A Handbook for

Visionaries, Game Changers, and Challengers. Hoboken: Wiley, 2010. Print.

Rogers, Everett M. Diffusion of Innovations. 5th ed. New York: Free Press, 2003. Print.

Teece, David J. “Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation.” Long Range Planning

43.2–3 (2010): 172–94. Print.

Tidd, Joe, and John Bessant. Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and

Organizational Change. 5th ed. Hoboken: Wiley, 2013. Print.

von Hippel, Eric. “Democratizing Innovation: The Evolving Phenomenon of User Innovation.”

Innovation 1.1 (2009): 29–40. Print.

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