Today: Innovation: Sources and Models Week 8, October 19, 1998 Week 8, October 19, 1998 Dr. Vincent G. Duffy - IEEM SOSC Science Technology and Society 1

What’s the difference between invention and innovation? Invention is the first expression of a new technology. Innovation is the introduction of a new technology. 2

Sources of Innovation: Where do Innovations Come From? Typically we think of most innovations as coming from the R&D (research and development) process. This is primarily the case for 20th century technologies. R&D has been sponsored by both industry and government. 3

What kind of R&D produces the most innovations? Governments and business allocate large resources to to technological development, especially innovation, because it so important to economic growth. In order to allocate resources efficiently, it would be good if we knew where innovations originate. For many decades the fundamental question has been whether innovations are the result of long-term, undirected scientific research, or the product of short- term engineering research. 4

R&D defined Basic research - usually undirected, not toward a specific goal, other than knowledge Applied research - mission oriented research - a mix of scientific and engineering activities Development - the stage at which an innovation/technological product is created 5

“HINDSIGHT: A look back...” In the late 1960s, the US Department of Defense funded a study of the development of 20 weapons systems in the US. studied over 700 research events test if innovations came from undirected scientific research, directed scientific research, or engineering development. know where to direct resources and better manage the development of innovations. 6

HINDSIGHT Conclusions % of Events Scientific Non-mission oriented0.3% Mission oriented8.7% Engineering Technological/Dev.91% The HINDSIGHT study angered many scientists, for it implicitly threatened scientific funding. 7

TRACES identified 341 research events. % of Research Events Non-mission oriented70% Mission oriented20% Development10% TRACES, unlike HINDSIGHT, looked at the long term influence of science. They found that 45% of the non-mission research, or 32% of the total research … was done 30 years before the innovation. 8

As noted in the TRACES study, 32% of total research was done 35 years before the innovation 56% was done 15 years before. Technological innovations don’t necessarily depend on the latest scientific advances. Conversely, scientific knowledge often takes a long time before it is found “useful.” 9

Our Conclusions The obvious lesson is that it is very hard to judge where technologies come from. And, depending on who does the study, there will probably be bias towards or against scientific research. More importantly, modern technologies do depend on undirected scientific research, but often that scientific research is quite old. But how can the conclusions of the 2 studies be so different? 10

Fundamental Problem of These Studies All of the studies assumed a linear model of technological development. That is, they assumed that innovations all begin with scientific knowledge. The terms basic, applied, and development are weak categories for understanding innovation because they poorly model the actual development of technology. 11

Models of Innovation 1. Linear Model (Applied Science Model) ScienceEngineeringSociety 12

Linear Model (Applied Science Model) ScienceEngineeringSociety Basic Research Applied Research Development Society 13

Linear Model (Applied Science Model) ScienceEngineeringSociety Basic Research Applied Research Development Society 14

n Q.1 Are the examples of Quality circle an example of linear model or non linear model? n Q.2. What is the difference between the linear and non-linear models? Give an example. n All of the studies assumed a linear model of technological development. That is, they assumed that innovations all begin with scientific knowledge. 15

2. Non-linear Model ScienceEngineering Society 16

Non-linear Innovation Model: A more detailed view ScienceEngineering Society Idea Research Design Manufacture Operation 17

So far we have focused on innovations that begin at a conceptual level (with an idea). The idea may come from markets, from engineers, and even scientists. Eventually this idea is turned into a product, or an improved product… more next time…’R&D who should pay?’ We could redraw the model to account for other variants. 18

Non-linear Innovation Model (2a. Learning-by-Doing Variation) A very large proportion of innovations come from the production, or manufacturing, process. We call these “learning-by-doing” innovations, because they were learned while people were trying to make the product. 19

Learning-By-Doing Managers and engineers often forget about the learning-by-doing process. They sometimes assume that once a product has left the design stage, that it no longer requires improvement. Some of the most important improvements, however, come after the design stage, especially in the manufacturing stage. 20

Non-linear Innovation Model (2b. Learning-by-Using Variation) This occurs outside of the design and production of an innovation. In the design and production stages, the performance of a product is uncertain. Only after prolonged use do we come to understand how products perform (the operational stage). 21

Non-linear Innovation Model (Learning-by-Using Variation) Through learning-by-using, innovations become optimized. There are two types of learning-by-using: –2b.1 Embodied (new ideas cause changes in the physical product) –2b.2 Disembodied (new ideas cause changes in the use or operation of the product) 22

Non-linear model: embodied or disembodied change? H.K. Stadium (innovations) –1. wear gloves in stadium –2. put dome on stadium –3. wear headphones embodied or disembodied change? –embodied - physical change –disembodied - no physical/permanent change Learning by doing or Learning by using? How do you know? 24

QOTD Q.3. What is the difference between learning by using and learning by doing? Do the Quality Circle innovations come from Learning by using or Learning by doing? If they are improving process… then learning by doing if they are improving product…then learning by using Q4. Are they embodied or disembodied change? QC improvements: change the motor size…embodied learn by using…usually product improvements… wear gloves…disembodied, put a dome…embodied 25