The Process of Technological Innovation - An Experiential Case of Mobile Phone and Telecommunication Service

by

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Problem Statement2

Aim and Objectives of the Study3

Research Questions3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW5

The Importance of Innovation5

Innovation as a Valuable Weapon5

Innovation to New Product/Service Adoption6

Technology and the Technological Innovation Process7

The Technological Innovation Process8

CHAPTER 3: METHODOLOGY11

Research Design11

Data collection procedure11

Search Technique12

Literature Search12

Keywords13

REFERENCES14

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

First-generation (IG) cell-phone systems were introduced in the 1980s. Because cell-phone systems were using analogue transmission-signal technology at the time, the quality of voice transmission easily incurred interruptions. By the late 1980s, digital transmission-signal technology was being developed in second-generation (2G) cell-phone systems to replace 1 G cell-phone systems. It not only became easier to carry mobile phones around (size), but there was also amazing progress in operations and transmission quality. The 2G cell-phones provide more enhanced service varieties such as SMS (short message service) and WAP (wireless-application protocol). The latter allows for textual Web browsing. Since 2000, 2.5G and 3G cell-phone systems were introduced. They were prompted by the demand for better data-transmission services such as MMS (multimedia message service), email, and advanced Web browsing.

Typically, the cell-phone industry is technology-oriented and belonged to the push-driven market. Its products are created ahead of the recognition of consumer needs (Karjaluoto et al., 2005, p. 64). Cell-phones greatly assist people in communicating anytime and anywhere in the world. Nowadays, due to technology innovations and improvements in the cell-phone industry, cell-phones are no longer only communication devices. They also provide powerful functionalities such as TV-streaming, navigation technology, and mobile banking. People consider convenience to be one of the primary advantages when using mobile technology (Magura, 2003, p. 9). Compared to other information-communication technology such as the Internet, cell-phones play a more significant role in our daily lives. As a result of the widespread adoption and diffusion of cell-phones, the penetration and number of subscribers have risen rapidly. The statistics of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) show that cell-phone subscribers have increased worldwide from 1.4 billion in 2003 to surpass 4 billion in 2008. By the end of 2009, the number of mobile subscriptions had reached 4.6 billion, with the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) averaging 23.3% between 2003 and 2008 (ITU, 2008, n.d.). While in 2000, mobile penetration (per 100 inhabitants) was around 12%, the rate had reached 59.74% in early 2008 and around 67% by the end of2009 (lTU, 2009, n.d.).

Problem Statement

In the last few years, the technological innovation process has become one of the most promising and attractive areas of research in the field of management. This can be verified by the increasing number of researches in this area. Nonetheless, a solid theoretical base regarding technological innovation still remains to be built in the academia. Furthermore, most of the studies on the innovation process have been conducted in the manufacturing industry. Therefore, the purpose of this research would be to understand and analyse the technological innovation process in the UK mobile phone and telecommunication ...