Why is innovation so important for firms to compete in many

industries?
As mentioned in the book, innovation management is really just a form of looking
into the future, being creative and imaginative so that you can carve out a new
niche before your competitors. Business must look ahead, not behind. It’s not just
the big companies that need to do this. Every business must innovate to compete.
They must create new products and services for new markets. They must be
creative, and come up with new ideas that never would have been thought of
before. In the new management paradigm, Here’s what will happen. Everything
will speed up. Processes, functions, data, inventory turns and speed to market,
will force employees to learn a whole new language called innovation.
If companies don’t innovate continuously and be at par with the evolving world,
they will surely lose the battle. The biggest examples who lost the game in recent
times are NOKIA and BLOCKBUSTER who couldn’t keep up with their competitors
SAMSUNG/APPLE and NETLIX respectively.

Reference; Strategic Management of Technological Innovation 5th Edition

http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5167-innovation.html

What are some advantages of technological innovation?

Disadvantages?

I think in a way technological innovation is both, boon and cures to the

humankind. Technological innovation has made our lives simpler than ever,
everything you need is just a click/phone call away. But also our dependency on
them has increased more than ever. Can you guys imagine life without Wi-Fi right
now? I CANNOT. Advantages, there are a lot of advantages of technological
innovation, internet, cell phones, smartphones, digital cameras, Wi-Fi to name a
few. The one that fascinates me the most is GPS. GPS; I still remember our car
vacations started with my dad going down to the AAA (Wikipedia tells me it was
"known formerly as the American Automobile Association" - sort of like IBM, I
guess) and get maps with our route highlighted in yellow. When I first saw
MapQuest I was blown away by the potential; the arrival of Web-based Google
Maps just continued the innovation and set the stage for how we all use GPS
today. Of some of the Disadvantages mentioned in the book and by my fellow
classmates, like employee concerns, upfront costs, environment, etc. I would like
to put light on Dependency on gadgets: People are becoming mechanical as they
are getting more and dependent on gadgets. Nowadays, human beings cannot do
a simple work without taking help of a gadget. For example, without computer
and wifi access today, I couldn’t have posted this assignment on blackboard.
Reference;
Strategic Management of Technological Innovation 5th Edition
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-technology-advances-
12579.html

Why do you think so many innovation projects fail to generate

an economic return?
Textbook suggests that compressive project takes more time than the ones which
is cumulative. Innovation is an inherently risky undertaking. Most innovation
projects are characterized by both technical uncertainty (will the project result in
a technically feasible product or service?) and market uncertainty (what features
will customer prefer and what will they be willing to pay for them?) In their
eagerness to innovate, firms take risk of undertaking too many projects,
overestimating their potential returns and underestimating their uncertainty. This
is compounded by the fact that many people mistakenly believe that creativity
can only be tapped through an unstructured process, when in fact innovation can
be the most powerful and has a greater likelihood of success when it is planned
and implemented strategically. In recent times, Innovation project that failed to
generate an economic return is Google Glass In 2012, Google introduced the
world to Glass, computerized glasses that can show maps, display emails, and
snap pictures and videos of whatever a person is looking at. But by the end of
2014, expectations were that the $1,500 wearable computer would be a
consumer hit had been shattered. Half of app developers polled by Reuters had
stopped working on apps for Glass, and the consumer launch was postponed until
2015. Even the product’s visionary, Google cofounder Sergey Brin, began turning
up in public not wearing the device as usual. One user told MIT Technology
Review the problem was an experience that was far less helpful than expected: “I
found that it was not very useful for very much, and it tended to disturb people
around me that I have this thing.” Glass may yet find success in niche applications
Reference;
http://www.business2community.com/tech-gadgets/5-reasons-google-glass-
miserable-failure01462398#lg7f2ZI7pjJHle3G.97
http://customerthink.com/80_of_innovation_projects_fail_what_should_we_do/
Strategic Management of Technological Innovation 5th Edition