2. THE GENERATION OF INNOVATION;
INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT PROCESS,
TRACING THE INNOVATION-
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS, CONVERTING
RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE
3. THE ORIGIN OF INNOVATION
“ Innovation is a result of:
• A shock (a major failure) to the system
• Problemistic search
• Random variability in experimentation
• Deliberate decision to invest in learning
• Match between a need and ideas which already exists
• Formal vehicles for stimulating innovation such as research
and development
4. • Managerial risk seeking or risk averse behavior
• Availability of slack resources
• Management philosophy and organizational climate
and
• Customer needs.”
5. GENERATION OF INNOVATION
• The generation of innovation implies how an
innovation is generated through the process of
innovation development.
• It usually occurs prior to the diffusion process.
6. INNOVATION DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
Steps involved in the innovation development
process;
1. Recognizing a problem or need
2. Basic and applied research
3. Development of innovation
4. Commercialization
5. Diffusion and adoption and
6. Consequences
7. 1. Recognizing a problem or need
The recognition of a problem or need stimulates
research and development activities designed to
create an innovation to solve the problem or needs.
2. Basic and applied research
It refers to original investigation for advancement
of scientific knowledge, most of the technological
innovations are created by scientific research,
although they often result from interplay between
scientific methods and practical problems.
8. 3. Development of innovation
It refers to the process of putting an idea into a form
i.e. expected to meet the needs of an audience of
potential adopters.
4. Commercialization
The innovation results from the research activities,
also referred as the scientific research packaged in a
form ready to be adopted by users. Its traditionally
done by the private companies.
9. 5. Diffusion and adoption
The crucial stage in the process is the decision to
diffuse an innovation to the potential adopters.
6. Consequences
The final phase of the process is to assess the change
that occurs to an individual or to a social system as a
result of adoption or rejection of an innovation.
Consequences can be;
• Desirable vs. Undesirable
• Direct vs. Indirect
• Anticipated vs. Unanticipated consequences.
10. TRACING THE INNOVATION
DEVELOPMENT PROCESS
• Retrospective reconstruct- TRACER STUDIES
bring out the sequence of main events and
decision in the IDP
• Source of data
personal interview- key investigators,participants
Research publication
Archives – grants,patents,change agency record
11. • First known retrospective study
on DEFENCE ,Project Hindsight
• Investigated the R&D process of twenty
different military weapon systems
• Key events and decision which evolved into
these technology were studied
• 35 events per innovation were identified
• The project concluded :
highly applied notions along with adequate
funding resulted in the same
12. SAGA OF PROJECT HINDSIGHT
Project :TRACES-III
Batello Columbus Laboratories
Project :TRACES-II
Batello Columbus Laboratories
Project:TRACES -I: TECHNOLOGY IN RETROSPECT AND
CRITICAL EVENT IN SCIENCE
Illinois Institute of Technology
13. • Project Sappho ,England broadened the
methodology of retrospective studies
• Eventually from military weapons to
Biomedical studies agriculture other arenas
• e.g Minnesota innovation tracer study on
hybrid grain seeds
14. FINDINGS OF THE TRACER STUDIES
• Technological advances in any field is the
resultant of cluster of innovations
• Technically it is called functional
interdependence of innovation
• e.g Bt Cotton
emergence of the field of Transgenics
discovery of Bacillus thurigiensis
discovery of cry genes and cry proteins
15. • Gestation period- quite long
• e.g for a new crop variety to be released ,it requires
field trials of 10 years
• Be it any field ,the conception to realization of an
innovation takes time
• e.g
hybrid corn: 25 years
Insecticide :13 years
• IDP often starts without having an idea on its
credible practical application (Comroe,1977)
16. LACUNAE IN TRACER STUDY
• Dependent on availability of research
publication
• Data shortage lead to trace innovation
development process only
• Failed to explain diffusion/ adoption process
17. CONVERTING RESEARCH INTO
PRACTICE
RESEARCH INTO PRACTICE
Utilization of innovation in large scale
RESEARCH TRIAL
Carry out trials in small scale To test the efficacy and efficiency
RESEARCH EVALUATION
Worthiness of the research is pondered over Assesements are made on its pragmatic appraoch
RESEARCH AWARENESS
Individual /group learns about new research Lacks much information
19. Background
-Hybrid seed corn: Introduced to Iowa farmers in 1928 and remained
as one of the most important new agricultural technologies.
-Characteristics:
. Increased productivity by 20%.
. Suitable for mechanical corn pickers -> Reduced the need for a
large number of farmers to harvest the corp.
. More drought-resistant.
(Rogers 2003)
Figure 3. Reproduced from Urban Farmer 2012 Figure 4. Reproduced from Urban Farmer 2011
20. Background
-- In 1941, Ryan and Gross investigated on the diffusion of hybrid
seed corn in the area. In general, their findings suggested that
(a) The diffusion process took 12 years to reach widespread
diffusion.
(b) The average farmer needed 7 years to progress from initial
awareness of the innovation to full-scale adoption.
- Specifically, a qualitative research was conducted in 2 communities
in Iowa and a total of 259 famers were interviewed to understand
farmers’ decision to adopt the hybrid seed corn.
Most farmer-respondents recognized that they went through a
series of stages.
(Rogers 2003)
21. Knowledge
-Salesmen from the seed corn company introduced the innovation to
Iowa farmers.
- Influencing factors:
Socioeconomic characteristics: The seed lost it hybrid vigor after
the first generation -> required annual purchase -> costed quite
amount of money given the Depression context.
Previous practice: Previously, farmers had selected the best-
looking corn plants to use as seed for the following years -> the
adoption of hybrid corn meant an important change in the corn-
growing behavior.
Obstructed knowledge-gaining process.
Slowed down the diffusion process as a whole.
Innovation-Decision process
(Rogers, Singhal & Quinlan 2009)
22. Innovation-Decision process
Persuasion
-Iowa farmers mentally applied the new idea to their present or an
anticipated future situation before deciding whether or not to try it.
- However, like any innovation, hybrid seed corn carried some
degree of uncertainty.
Sought social reinforcement for their attitude toward the
innovation by referring to the neighbors .
The neighbor gave meaning to the innovation, leading to the
forming of positive attitude and persuasion.
(Rogers, Singhal & Quinlan 2009)
23. -The small-scale trial is often an important part of the decision to
adopt.
-In 1930s, the seed corn salesmen gave a small bag of the new seed,
which was enough to plant about an acre of corn, to Iowa farmers
entering the decision stage.
A large enough trial to convince the farmer to adopt the new idea
on all of his corn acreage in the next few years.
Innovation-Decision process
Decision
(Rogers, Singhal & Quinlan 2009)
24. - Implementation usually follows the decision stage rather directly.
With such facilitations from the seed corn company, the
famers-respondents trialed the seed corn.
Innovation-Decision process
Implementation
(Rogers, Singhal & Quinlan 2009)
25. WINTERTemplate
- Innovators and early adopters were more likely to positively confirm
their decision to implement the innovation than later adopters, meaning
that the rate of adoption was faster. (Rogers, Singhal & Quinlan 2009)
Innovation-Decision process
Confirmation
Figure 5. Reproduced from Rogers 2003
