This document discusses various sources of innovation, including creativity within individuals and organizations, transforming creative ideas into innovations, inventors and users as sources of innovation, research and development by firms, and linkages between firms through collaborations, technology clusters, and agglomeration economies. It provides examples like the development of the camera pill to view the small intestine and the birth of the snowboarding industry to illustrate these different sources.

1. SOURCES OF
INNOVATION
By Fajri Ansyah Putra

2. Getting an Inside Look: Given Imaging’s Camera Pill
1 The Camera Pill: A capsule that is swallowed by patient that broadcasts
images of the small intestine
2 Invented by Gavriel Iddan & team of scientists
Invented by Gavriel Iddan & team of scientists :Iddan applied guided
missile concept to problem of viewing the small intestine3
Developing the Camera Pill : Many hurdles to overcome: size, image
quality, battery life4

3. Overview
Innovation can arise from many different sources and the
linkages between them.

4. Creativity
The ability to produce work that is useful and novel
Individual creativity is a function of:
•Intellectual abilities (e.g., ability to articulate
ideas)
•Knowledge (e.g., understand field, but not
wed to paradigms)
•Style of thinking (e.g., choose to think in
novel ways)
•Personality (e.g., confidence in own
capabilities)
•Motivation (e.g., rely on intrinsic motivation)
•Environment (e.g., support and rewards for
creative ideas)
•Risk taker (e.g., willingness to take
reasonable risks)
Persistence (e.g., tolerate ambiguity and
willingness to
overcome obstacles)
Organizational Creativity is a
function of:
•Creativity of individuals within the
organization
•Social processes and contextual factors that
shape how those
individuals interact and behave
Methods of encouraging/tapping
organizational creativity:
•Idea collection systems (e.g., suggestion
box)
•Creativity training programs Culture that
encourages (but doesn’t directly pay for)
creativity

5. Transforming Creativity into Innovation
Innovation is the implementation of creative ideas into some new device
or process.
Inventors : One ten-year study found that inventors typically:
•Have mastered the basic tools and operations of the field in which they invent, but they
will have not specialized solely on that field.
•Are curious, and more interested in problems than solutions.
•Question the assumptions made in previous work in the field.
•Often have the sense that all knowledge is unified. They will seek global solutions rather
than local solutions, and will be generalists by
nature

6. Transforming Creativity into Innovation
Innovation by Users : Users have a deep understanding of their own
needs, and motivation to fulfill them.
•Laser sailboat developed by Olympic sailors without any formal market research or
concept testing based on their own preferences.
Indermil
•a tissue adhesive based on Superglue. Managers tried to
exploit Superglue’s tendency to bond to skin to develop an
alternative to sutures for surgical applications.

7. The Birth of the Snowboarding Industry
•First snowboards not developed by sports equipment manufacturers; rather
they were developed by individuals seeking new ways of gliding over snow
•By 2001 there were approximately 5.3 million snowboarders in the United
States and the US market for snowboarding equipment had surpassed $235
million Theory In Action

8. Research and Development by Firms
•Research :refers to both basic and applied research.
•Development : refers to activities that apply knowledge to produce useful
devices, materials, or processes.
•R&D thus refers to a range of activities that extend from early exploration of
a domain to specific commercial implementations

9. Firm Linkages with Customers, Suppliers, Competitors, and
Complementors
•External versus Internal Sourcing of Innovation
Universities and Government Funded Research Universities
• Many universities encourage research that leads to useful innovations Bayh
• Dole Act of 1980 allows universities to collect royalties on inventions funded with taxpayer
dollars
Universities and GovernmentFunded Research
•in 1950s and 1960s US govt funded over 65% of R&D money, 26% by 2000 but slack
picked up by industry
•Governments invest in research through

10. Innovation in Collaborative Networks
•Collaborations include (but are not limited to):Joint ventures, Licensing and
second, sourcing agreements. Research associations, Government-sponsored
joint research programs, Value -added networks for technical and scientific ,
Exchange, Informal networks,
•Collaborative networks are especially important in High, technology sectors
where individual firms rarely possess all necessary resources and capabilities

11. Technology Clusters
are regional clusters of firms that have a connection to a common technology
e.g., Silicon Valley’s semiconductor firms, lower Manhattan’s multimedia cluster
Agglomeration Economies
benefits firms reap by locating in close geographical proximity to each Other
Downside of Agglomeration Economies
Technological spillovers
spread of knowledge across organizational or regional boundaries) occur when
the benefits from the research activities of
one entity spill over to other entities.