INNOVATION MANAGEMENT TUTORIAL 4

SECTION A TRUE FALSE QUESTIONS

1. There are road maps, seven steps, and algorithms to define just how ideas are born and how
they mature into an innovation (TRUE)
2. The application of the innovation process will be vary depending on where the innovation lies
on the innovation continuum (TRUE)
3. The estimated contribution by the innovation must be measured in relation to the
organization’s size (TRUE)
4. Timing of any innovation does not require consideration of the amount of change that the
innovation creates (FALSE)
5. Analysing the sources of new opportunities in the beginning of purposeful and systematic
innovation (TRUE)
6. An organization’s vision and mission, strategies, objectives, structure and innovation support
could provide guidance for behavioural scientists to have some insight into an organization
(TRUE)
7. In organization resources, selection of participants usually does not involve too much
emphasis on credentials but rather on past performance (FALSE)
8. The Roberts and Frohman model has seven stages, and is representative of many models
found in academic research (FALSE)
9. Van de Van found that innovation projects were consistent from project start to finish, and
that outcomes are stable and were precursors to other ideas (FALSE)
10. The stage-gate, a system that moved innovated product more rapidly to the marketplace, was
introduced by Robert G. Cooper (TRUE)
11. Rothwell identified five models that form part of a continuum of the innovation process
introduced over the last half-century (TRUE)
12. The Rothwell technology push model is portrayed as being passive and simple taking what
technology has to offer, which virtually ignores the marketplace (TRUE)
B. ESSAY QUESTIONS

1. Innovation is important and crucial for business success. Companies need to be creative
to produce good ideas for product innovation that meet customer demands. What are
the differences between innovation and creativity?

INNOVATION
 Begins with an idea that is transformed into a concept, that includes some new
combination of what is already known and can be implemented to serve some purpose
 Starts as invention plus implementation/commercialization. Invention involves the
process of taking an idea and developing it into a concept, which finally leads to an
innovation

CREATIVITY
 The generation of ideas that result in the improved efficiency or effectiveness of a
system
 A mental process, involving the generation of new ideas or concepts or new
associations between existing ideas or concepts

2. Sources of new opportunities should be analysed in order to have purposeful and

systematic innovation. List seven sources listed by Drucker’s (1985) for innovative
opportunities in starting an entrepreneurial venture
 Process needs
 Incongruities
 Unexpected
 Industry market and structure
 Demographic changes
 New technology and scientific findings
 Changes in public perception
3. Briefly explain the five innovation process models introduced by Rothwell (1994) that
are formed as part of a continuum which saw new models of innovation introduces over
the last half-century

Rothwell (1994) identified five models in the process of innovation which are
technology push model, demand pull model, coupling, integrated and network.

First of all, technology push model is the traditional perspective on the process of
innovation and the research-led version. The features of this model is that it is driven by
developments in science and technology. It assumes that more technology, brought about by
additional expenditure on R&D, will lead inexorably to more innovation. The process is
entirely linear and sequential, each stage following on from the completion of the previous
one. The model virtually ignores the marketplace, which is portrayed as being passive and
simply taking what technology has to offer. The model is naive as far as the process itself is
concerned. We are told very little about the nature of the process. Example: the
pharmaceutical industry.

Secondly, the demand pull model was introduces at late of 1960s and early 1970s and
the role of the market is central in demand pull. According to Rothwell (1994), the move to a
more market-centered type of innovation process reflected the maturing of many technology-
based industries and a growing realization that consumer requirements were becoming more

sophisticated. This is a variant on the generic model, if one sees consumer needs as the

source of new ideas that lead to innovation. This model of the innovation process is
appropriate for mature technologies/industries where firms' innovation effort is devoted to
minor improvements that are better at meeting consumers' requirements.

Other than that, coupling is the technology push and demand pull innovation models
are flawed for many industries. Both models rely on a linear and sequential type of innovation
process, which encourage an over-the-wall behaviour, as the responsibility of departments
handling tasks were in isolation. This provided little guidance and disadvantages in assisting
other departments, and so the coupling model evolved. The presence of feedback loops is a
crucial difference between this model and the former ones. It is a two-way communication
between various functions and demolishes over the wall operations
 Furthermore, the integrated model (1980) were characterized by powerful forces for
change. Developments in technology, both in the computing and the communications fields,
led to the introduction of IT-based manufacturing systems that shortened product life cycles.
In parallel with changes in manufacturing technology came new ideas about manufacturing
management like just-in-time production and set-up reduction, concurrent or parallel
development. Japanese companies rely on project teams that integrate the various functions.
Under such arrangements the functions are brought into the new product development process
from the start, and joint group meetings ensure that issues such as manufacturability are
considered early in the process rather than near the end. Team-based new product
development therefore represents a much more integrated process.

Lastly, in the 1990s, Rothwell introduced a fifth generation innovation process which
is network that reflects the way in which some organizations increasingly rely not only on
their own internal resources for innovation, but instead draw on external resources, either for
the development of major sub-systems and components or to undertake specific phases of the
innovation process. It can be achieved through alliances, agreements and contracts with third-
party organizations and reflects continuing developments in computing and communications
which have facilitated information transfer and outsourcing. The resulting vertical
disintegration has led to organizations ceasing certain activities such as research and some
forms of development, preferring instead to buy them in as and when needed. Companies that
utilize the network model of innovation increasingly take on the role of systems integrator
where they manage the innovation process and the integration of the development activities
carried out by partners.

4. Much in the management literature on innovation attempts to place the innovation

process into a stage-by-stage process. Briefly describe the Roberts and Frohman model
that has six stages, and is it representative of the previous statement?

The Roberts and Frohman (1978) model has six stages, and is representative of many
models found in academic research. There stages include recognition of the opportunity, idea
formulation, problem-solving, prototype solution, commercial development and technology
utilization and diffusion. Robert and Frohman acknowledge that innovation is not a linear
process and that it is conceivable to be in the commercial development stage and find it
necessary to return to the problem-solving stage or any period that preceded it. This model
disregards the fact that the innovation process involves doing several actions simultaneously.
Recognition of an opportunity and idea generation are often simultaneous actions. Thinking of
technologies and markets are also simultaneous activities. Resolving a design problem and at
the same time thinking how that design fits into the system is not a choice. It is true that one
can search for an opportunity and then find a solution, but innovators tend to think in chunks.