INNOVATION AT LED LOW ENERGY LIGHT BULBS

Innovation at LED Low Energy Light Bulbs



Innovation at LED Low Energy Light Bulbs

Introduction

Few subjects have received as much attention from social scientists, managers, and public policy-makers as innovation. It is the engine for novel changes in organizations and society as a whole. An innovation is the creation and implementation of a new idea. The new idea may pertain to a technological innovation (new technical artifacts, devices, or products), a process innovation (new services, programs, or production procedures), or an administrative innovation (new institutional policies, structures, or systems). The idea may be a novel recombination of old ideas, a scheme that challenges the present order, or an unprecedented formula or approach (Zaltman, Duncan, and Holbeck, 1973). As long as the idea is perceived as new and entails a novel change for the actors involved, it is an innovation. When the people working on a new idea are members of an organization, the venture is typically called an organizational innovation, in contrast to efforts undertaken by independent individuals (entrepreneurship) or by organizations working collectively (joint ventures or networks).

Innovations can vary widely in novelty, size, and temporal duration. Some innovations involve small, quick, incremental, lone-worker efforts. Some are unplanned and emerge by chance, accident, or afterthought. Although the majority of innovations in organizations may be of small scope, larger scale innovations have attracted more attention from practitioners and researchers. In particular, we examine innovations in which most managers and venture capitalists typically invest. They consist of planned, concentrated efforts to develop and implement a novel idea that reflects substantial technical, organizational, and market uncertainty, entails a collective effort of considerable duration, and requires greater resources than are held by the people undertaking the effort.

Innovation Models

The importance of an understanding of innovation as a process is that it shapes the way in which we try and manage it. This understanding has changed a great deal over time. Early models (both explicit and, more importantly, the implicit mental models whereby people managed the process) saw innovation as a linear sequence of functional activities. Either new opportunities arising out of research gave rise to applications and refinements which eventually found their way to the marketplace ('technology push'), or else the market signaled needs for something new which then drew out new solutions to the problem ('need pull', where (Lawrence Davis 1983 p. 9)necessity becomes the mother of invention). The limitations of such an approach are clear; in practice innovation is a coupling and matching process, where interaction is the critical element. Sometimes the 'push' will dominate, sometimes the 'pull', but successful innovation requires an interaction between the two. One of the key problems in managing innovation is to make sense of a complex, uncertain and highly risky set of phenomena.

Much recent work recognizes the limits of linear models, and tries to build more complexity and interaction into the frameworks. Most innovation is messy, involving false starts, recycling between stages, dead ends, and jumps out of sequence. (Nonaka Takeuchi 1995 pp.78-82) In an important programme of case studybased research looking at widely different innovation types, Zollo Singh (2002 701-713) explored the limitations of simple models ...