Successful industrial innovation: critical factors for the 1990s

TLDR

Technology and the industrial innovation process are rapidly evolving. The study reviews the evolution of industrial innovation models from linear push/pull to coupling and integrated frameworks. The latest 5th‑generation model portrays innovation as faster, more parallel, networked, and supported by electronic tools, a shift driven by Japanese corporate practices.

Abstract

Not only is technology changing rapidly, but the process of the commercialisation of technological change—the industrial innovation process—is changing also. The paper traces developments in the dominant perceived model of industrial innovation from the simple linear ‘technology push’ and ‘need pull’ models of the 1960s and early 1970s, through the ‘coupling model’ of the late 1970s to early 1980s, to the ‘integrated’ model of today. The latter (the 4th Generation innovation process) marked a shift from perceptions of innovation as a strictly sequential process to innovation perceived as a largely parallel process. This shift owed much to observations of innovation processes in leading Japanese corporations. Recent developments indicate the possibilities attainable in the proposed ‘strategic integration and networking’ model, elements of which are already in place. According to this 5th generation model, innovation is becoming faster; it increasingly involves inter‐company networking; and it employs a new electronic toolkit (expert systems and simulation modelling).