Critical Transition from Developers to Users : Activity-Theoretical Studies of Interaction and Learning in the Innovation Process

Abstract

Often, inventions of scientists and engineers that start in backyard garages and research laboratories come into the hands of users unfinished, clumsy and user-unfriendly. It has been shown that putting an innovation into use may be a major challenge for the adopter organization. This study focuses on the question of how people involved in the innovation learn to master the shift from developer to user. The study focuses on the “gray area” between research and development (R&D) and introduction onto the market, an area in which developers and users actually meet and interact. This coming together is significant, although not easy, for the communities responsible for the development of the new product. Early collaboration and application work with users may be crucial to the expansion of user networks and the diffusion of innovation. I refer to this phase of innovation as “critical transition.” The innovation under scrutiny is a science-based technological product originating from research on low-temperature physics at the Helsinki University of Technology. This product, the neuromagnetometer, is a measurement instrument for brain research and diagnostics. The neuromagnetometer and its use in studying the brain are called magnetoencephalography (MEG). I studied the neuromagnetomer innovation and the innovation network in 1996-1997, when the spin-off company responsible for the commercialization of the technology targeted new, clinical markets. The study is an analysis of producer-user relations, and of the implementation and use of the neuromagnetometer in a Finnish and an American hospital laboratory. It is a qualitative case study and includes four analyses (articles) that open four complementary “windows” onto an innovation trajectory tracing the neuromagnetometer and its early implementation into clinical use in two hospitals (one in Finland and one in the United States) in a short period of time (1996-1997). Cultural-historical activity theory offers a framework for studying technology development and use in terms of object-oriented and historically-constructed activity. The activitytheoretical framework is applied in this study of producer-user interaction and implementation processes in a given innovation, in a specific historical phase. The findings and implications of the study are discussed in relation to (1) the problems of producer-user relations and implementation, (2) learning, and (3) the research framework and methodology. The study contributes to the debate on producer-user relations, implementation and learning in innovation processes by exploring the transition of a neuromagnetometer innovation to practical use. By building on theoretical and empirical literature on innovation and technology management, and by drawing on a theoretical framework sensitive to systemic relationships, I develop the concept of critical transition from developers to users as a potential new, dynamic perspective on integrating the above-mentioned classic themes of innovation.