2: Patterns in innovative activity

Question 1

What do we mean when we say that technological innovations are generally cumulative and evolutionary?

Answer 1

Most innovations are new combinations of existing technologies. They take place in fits, spurts and jumps. Some can be identifies as revolutionary.

Question 2

What waves of technological development have we been trough?

Answer 2

• Early mechanization -> steam power + railways -> electrical + heavy engineering -> forest mass production -> information + communications technology.

Question 3

What are the consequences of the new Techno-Economic paradigm?

Answer 3

• Winners and losers: nations and firms.
• Re-design & new configuration of the capital stock.
• New skill profile in the labor force.
• New pattern of industrial relations
• New national and international regulations
• Competitiveness is based on knowledge, creativity & learning, and innovation & R&D.

Question 4

What are the four stages in the S-curve?

Answer 4

1. Emergence
2. Rapid improvement
3. Declining improvement
4. Maturity

Question 5

What are the “problems” with the S-curve?

Answer 5

• The shape of the curve depends on the choice of input variable.
• It’s not always that you will get the S-shape on the curve.

Question 6

How can the S-curve help a company?

Answer 6

• The S-curve concept can help in determining when to switch to a new technology.
• It can help to avoid some typical problems of established companies: Currently used technology is over-estimated, R&D budgets are linked to revenues, misinterpretation of market signals due to biased attitude, lack of flexibility of historically grown organizational structures and cultures.

Question 7

What phases does the Product life cycle consist of?

Answer 7

• The fluid phase: where you have product innovation.
• The transitional phase
• The specific phase: process innovation starts.

Question 8

What type of people does the Rogers Adoption / Innovation Curve consist of?

Answer 8

• Innovators: active information seekers, able to cope with a high degree of uncertainty, gatekeeping role in the flow of new ideas into a system.
• Early adopters: often opinion leaders, more integrated part of local social system, decreases uncertainty about a new idea by adopting it.
• Early majority: interact frequently with their peers, seldom hold positions of opinion leadership.
• Late majority: adoption my be an economic necessity or the result of increasing peer pressures.
• Laggards: very localite, near isolates in social network, the past if point of reference, limited resources.