2. Technology trajectory The path a
technology takes through its lifetime. This
path may refer to its rate of performance
improvement, its rate of diffusion, or other
change of interest.
3. Product Innovation versus Process
Innovation
Product innovations are embodied in the
outputs of an organization—its goods or services.
For example, Honda’s development of a new
hybrid electric vehicle is a product innovation.
Process innovations are innovations in the
way an organization conducts its business, such
as in the techniques of producing or marketing
goods or services.
4. Radical Innovation versus Incremental
Innovation
Radical innovation An innovation that is
very new and different from prior solutions.
incremental innovation An innovation
that makes a relatively minor change from (or
adjustment to) existing practices.
5. Competence-Enhancing Innovation versus
Competence-Destroying Innovation
Competenceenhancing (-destroying)
innovation An innovation that builds on (renders
obsolete) existing knowledge and skills. Whether
an innovation is competence enhancing or
competence destroying depends on whose
perspective is being taken. An innovation can be
competence enhancing to one firm, while
competence destroying for another.
6. Architectural Innovation versus Component
Innovation
Component (or modular) innovation An
innovation to one or more components that does
not significantly affect the overall configuration of
the system.
Architectural innovation An innovation that
changes the overall design of a system or the way
its components interact with each other.
7. Using the Dimensions
Though the dimensions described above
are useful for exploring key ways that one
innovation may differ from another, these
dimensions are not independent, nor do they
offer a straightforward system for categorizing
innovations in a precise and consistent manner.
8. S-Curves in Technological Improvement
Many technologies exhibit an s-curve in
their performance improvement over their
lifetimes.7 When a technology’s performance is
plotted against the amount of effort and money
invested in the technology, it typically shows
slow initial improvement, then accelerated
improvement, then diminishing improvement
9. S-Curves in Technology Diffusion
S-curves are also often used to describe
the diffusion of a technology. Unlike s-curves in
technology performance, s-curves in
technology diffusion are obtained by plotting
the cumulative number of adopters of the
technology against time.
10. S-Curves as a Prescriptive Tool
Several authors have argued that
managers can use the s-curve model as a tool
for predicting when a technology will reach its
limits and as a prescriptive guide for whether
and when the firm should move to a new, more
radical technology
11. Limitations of S-Curve Model as a
Prescriptive Tool
First, it is rare that the true limits of a
technology are known in advance, and there is
often considerable disagreement among firms
about what a technology’s limits will be. Second,
the shape of a technology’s s-curve is not set in
stone. Unexpected changes in the market,
component technologies, or complementary
technologies can shorten or extend the life cycle of
a technology
12. The s-curve model above suggests that
technological change is cyclical: Each new s-
curve ushers in an initial period of turbulence,
followed by rapid improvement, then
diminishing returns, and ultimately is displaced
by a new technological discontinuity
