1 Need for Innovations

Question 1

What is the international hunting line?

Answer 1

Developing countries => Emerging Markets => Industrialized Country =====>*

*How can this arrow be prolonged based on innovations?

Question 2

Is there any relation between consumption, production, import & export volume and the current development status of a country?

Answer 2

Question 3

Which industries are considered to be innovative?

Answer 3

• Electrical machinery, apparatus, energy
• Computer technology
• Digital communication
• Medical Technology
• Measurement

Question 4

What are the challenges and their implications for innovations in germany?

Answer 4

• Europe/ germany strong in the competition regarding inventions and granted patents in many innovation areas
• BUT: succesful market placement seems to be a big obstacle (“german innovation - foreign success”
• implications:
  
  • countries have to specialize, no chance to win the competition in every field of innovation
  • assessment methods of innovation must have technological and economic criteria, but shouldn’t be too restricted: No risk, no success!
  • => Innovation Management should be a top issue in german firms!

Question 5

What is the experience curve? And how does it differ from the learning curve?

Answer 5

Originally there was the learning curve, which was used for improvements in the production. Nevertheless there were more fields of application and the concept of the experience curve was introduced.

Experience curve:

• costs per unit k = K₀ *(cumulated production volume X)^-b
• using the logarithm: log k = log K₀ - b*log(X)

Question 6

If the experience curves of different countries (e.g. IC vs. EM) are compared - what can be said?

Answer 6

The higher income your country has, the more complicated is it to move the experience curve down.