Chapter 6 Flashcards
Sources of Innovation
Shocks to the system Accidents Watching others (reverse engineering) Recominant innovation- take ideas from one world and put them in another world Regulations Advertising Inspiration Users as innovators Knowledge push
Dimensions of innovation opportunity
- Push or pull innovation- Idea from the field goes to research lab for further research
- Development approach- incremental or radical strategy, or both (punctuated equilibrium model)
- Delivery strategy - Exploit or explore
2 models of how to search
Abernathy model- Based on punctuated equilibrium. Requires extensive experimentation to create a radical new offer. Then dominant model emerges, and we switch to incremental innovation (improving quality or cost per unit)
S-Curve- relationship between time and adoption/growth, early stage innovators tolerate failure
Sources of knowledge to search
Knowledge network- strong vs weak ties.
Knowledge connectors- boundary spanners; people you don’t always engage with, i.e. people outside your firm or your industry.
Knowledge flow - physical closeness. Negative correlation between distance and emotional closeness
Knowledge concentration - communities that like innovation. Drives up trust and drives down distrust
Knowledge architecture - how is innovation set up
Absorptive capacity
Ability to recognize the value of new external information, assimilate it and apply to commercial ends
Potential vs realized absorptive capacity- Once you’ve been exposed to something, your ability to absorb it becomes much better
Structural hole
Where 2 knowledge worlds possess different information- Ronald Burt theory
Technological gatekeepers
Those who are able to see the relevance of external knowledge and have internal social connections to them
Allen curve
Shows a strong negative correlation between physical distance and frequency of comunication
Other dimensions of knowledge
Knowledge transformation- how to mobilize and work with tacit knowledge
Knowledge articulation- employees knowledge about the jobs they do
Knowledge assimilation- how to move new knowledge from outside a point of active development
Sailing ship effect
Exploit routines continue to bring a stream of improvements to the old technology and sustain the pathway
Value network
An organization’s key competitors, customers, and suppliers who reinforce the dominant way of seeing the world
Bottom of the pyramid development
Applying existing concepts to underserved markets with different characteristics and challenges
Two types of learning for absorptive capacity
Adaptive learning- reinforcing and establishing routines for environmental complexity
Generative learning- Taking on new levels of complexity
bootlegging
tacit support for projects that go aginst the grain
Top ranked sources for new ideas
Collaboration with business partners and customers
