Types of Innovation Models - Essay Example

INTRODUCTION There are many things needed to be considered and are being considered by managers of organizations from which the most important one isinnovation. Innovation is about finding out novel ideas for the development of an organization, searching for a feasible solution, uncovering the hidden needs. Something that is new-fangled, chief and creative that brings success in the market called innovation. It is about gathering new ideas and practicing them in such a way in which they create an impact on society.1 It also can be said that innovation is a sort of change that is specialized in nature and an idea that can be applied to products, services and processes. Thinking about innovation in terms of technology is not enough but the innovation process includes the organization’s finance consideration, competitive positioning, marketing, training, relationship of organization with the supplier and customer and between processes and products.TYPES OF INNOVATION MODELS There are two types of innovation model; one is normative and the second is a descriptive model. Normative model of innovation is helpful in the construction of developed and designed organizations and deliver ideas, guidelines in order to increase capacity of originality. . The nature of this model is prescriptive which means it provides alternative solutions and suggestions to problems and questions. It analyzes the situation and helps to answer what procedures should be applied according to the standards. Descriptive model or constructivist model is Intuitive in nature; go over the main individualities and processes that have been observed regarding innovation and this model explains the association among observed characteristics. at el 2000 and von Hippel, 1988). Descriptive model does not evaluate the solutions and used to measure performances and changes. It is based on emotions, experiences, opinions and knowledge of individuals (Robbins, & Coulter, 1997). 2 DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES OF INNOVATION Technological Determinism: This perspective discusses how human evaluations get influenced through Technological determinism. Innovations have been taken place in all aspects of human life, and technological innovation provided a boost to all industries. Veblen “tTechnology is an agent of social change and it in his view technology has the ability to mould the behaviors, society and interaction. Technology is an independent factor. The most admirable example of technology is the internet which has made the connections a lot easier than ever. Because of this innovation business can be expanded all over the world by sitting at home ground. Innovation and evaluation in the cell phones is presented as an example below: of Cell Phones (Turner, 2013), 2012. Technological determinism can be explained in two ways one is hard and second is soft: Hard determinism: Hard determinism refers the view that technology has separate development and there is no interference of the social environment. These sorts of innovations obligate society to follow them and there is no freedom can be seen through which people can make outcomes. Soft determinism: This idea presents technology as guiding forces in development and there is an opportunity to compose decision for results. Mostly two views have been encountered regarding technological determinism. The first view is technological development and this is beyond the political and cultural influence, and it has its own flow towards the way that is traceable and predictable. Second is; technological advancement has natural effects on societies because these changes or developments are supported by society after introduction. In other words, these changes get societal support once introduced. Social Construction of Technology: Social Construction of Technology efers refers to the theory technological and science studies. It has been determined that technology is not the one that shapes the human actions, but human actions shape technology. Communication among relevant social groups, engineers and technologists are technological development according social construction of technology. Concept of social constructivism say that knowledge is about social building and can be explained in numerous ways. It focuses on the criteria through which technology can be used in better ways and who is the participant in defining the criteria. Different steps are formulated to analyze the success and failures causes of technology. inch fFailures and successes of technology depends upon diverse explanations, driving factors and variables. Limitations of the study include lack of data covering, this approach is not able to report few discoveries of revolution and not attempt to describe the assembling of people. Social construction of technology theory explains the procedure through which technology arises but does not focus on the end results of technology. Social construction of technology focuses on those groups who create voice and take interest in the construction of technology while ignore those groups that are affected by technology but do not raise voice during the process. It focuses on the immediate problems, interests, needs and do not give preference to the deeper social, cultural, intellectual choices regarding technology. This approach do not pass any judgment on possible alternatives and therefore does not helpful for addressing the technological debates. Network analysis: Morphology can be analyzed through network analysis. Theory says that an agent is fixed in the social environment and that the agent is influenced by the network analysis. Agent can be an organization or an individual. It is about the interaction of one agent to another, and these associations are known as “relational ties” and agents are called nodes. This study focuses on these of relations such as knowledge, material resources, trust and information (Pyka, & Scharnhorst, 2009).3 Network analysis is a method through which innovation is described; it is used to draw the complexity in innovation.RESISTANCE TO CHANGE OR INNOVATION It has been analyzed organization, and individuals resist change and normally see change as threatening feature (Pyka, & Scharnhorst, 2009). 4People resist to innovation when they are not well informed, or they could not understand. There can be many causes due to which people resist to change such as discomfort, they do not like change or due to lack of clarity, fear of failure. For bringing change and making innovation possible, it is necessary to accept by all members it is a crucial issue that comes during change. The duty of manager is to deliver the whole plane appropriately and clearly throughout the organization and bring the points into focus that are the cause of resistance and then remove this point by making efforts.Product and Process innovation Products and associated processes or required processes to make products are tightly connected with each other. Therefore, product development has a significant impact on administrative and technical processes Processes of innovation would be different in different organizations and it depends upon the type of organization. For having innovative culture in the organization or for the adoption of innovation there is a need to do basic research means original investigation which have been done for the progression of scientific knowledge, these advancements may be related to the political or present interest. Applied research is a sort of research that has commercial objectives, and presents the investigation through which novel scientific knowledge can be discovered (Babbie, 2010)5. In the third step efforts are done for technological development in which research, improvement and creation of technology is completed. Technological development refers to the developed usage of tools and techniques for the solution of problems and also the collection of machinery and tools used to resolve critical issues. In Production development plans and procedures are considered that how a product can be presented in such ways that it would create differentiation. After having a look on basic issues the production of innovations is done and the defined and effective procedures are used.Innovation is a crucial factor for companies’ survival and provides competitive advantage. Product development and innovation in processes is imperative for organizational growth. For having a competitive advantage and breaking the competition firms need innovative products and processes (Kotler Armstrong, Wong, and Saunders, 2008). (See Pisano 1997). Industrial organizations have diverse connections with their environment and in such organizations adoption of innovations and their management is not an easy task; many external and internal factors have to be taken into account. Different Approaches to innovation as product and process Products and associated processes or required processes to make products are tightly connected with each other. Therefore, product development has a significant impact on administrative and technical processes. Business management process is an approach that helps the organization in two area “process innovation” and “innovation process”. BPM is able to support the innovation process form the deigning to the end. BPM improve the innovation processes through policies and help to make processes transparent. Companies can use this model and come up with different approaches of innovation. Innovation processes enable the company to have new ideas, and help to select the greater one and implementation of those selected ideas in order to measure success (Afuah, 2003).6Innovation approach based on customer observations: Apple is a company that focuses on innovation strategy in which company knows their customer better than them. Apple identified needs that have not been articulated and came up with those needs before anyone else. They did not focus on market researches; they took the opinion of customers through direct observation process. They did not attempt to make touch screen instead of this they are a high earner. They achieved this success by delivering high-quality expertise and experiences. Classic market research approach to innovation: Samsung has a different approach to innovation; Samsung innovation are not based on customers’ observation; they focus on competitor and try to break their competition by introducing innovative features in which other companies are lacking. It is an idea of coming with innovation and create innovative version to have market share. It is known as classic market research activity (Nisen, 2012). 7 Innovation failure: There are many reasons for the failure of innovation irresponsible adoption of innovation, innovation failure may be due the misunderstanding of application of products, may be product is made for too specific segment such as sun silk for scarf wearing ladies get failed because they innovate product that was targeting very specific people. Products that are not positioned in the product category also get failed lack of knowledge about customer needs, lack of resources, promised value is not being delivered, product is too costly, wrong channel distribution, customer over expected with product all are the reasons of product innovation failure. As it has been explained that processes are related to the product therefore failure of product is a failure of innovation process 8 ( Landry, Amara, and Becheikh, 2008)Frame Work Of Innovation Failure Exploring innovation failure in manufacturing industry (2008)(Landry, Amara, and Becheikh, 2008) Degree of novelty: If there is any discontinuity between markets, its skill and product innovation cause to fail the innovation. In some cases innovation in product needs research and development resources, strategies of knowledge management, new skilled workers and technical skills; discontinuity among the required and existing resources cause to abandoned the innovation. Barriers to innovation: There are two types of barriers one is internal barriers and second is external barriers. Internal barrier refers to the problems occur in the organization while external barriers refer to the failure of government and system failure. lack of financing resources, wrong usage of finance, in financing, lack of understanding of methods or processes, do not have an idea of measures used for risk assessment Some of the barriers are; financing barriers, lack of financing resources, wrong usage of finance, inadequate financing, lack of understanding of methods or processes, do not have an idea of measures used for risk assessment. Old mindset refers to the behaviors through which people do not accept innovation. On the other hand, Management barriers refer not to think out of the box. Vulnerability towards market: When companies depends upon the financing provided from their stakeholders they have to follow the technologies s and processes proposed by the stake holders and such firm do not attempt to invest much on innovation and avoid to tale risk. External funding and support of government Internal funding is not enough for innovation there is a need to have funds from external sources and need funding from government. Lack of funding resources and governmental support is a barrier to innovation. Strategies of firm: Firms inappropriate strategies are the cause of failure on an innovation. Allocation of scare resources in good way is important, development of clear strategies support firms to identify, transform and understand knowledge in context of internal and external environment. Information source: Sources of information should be reliable. Lack in information sources or sources that provide suspicious information create barriers to innovation and lead to failure (Goffin, & Mitchell, 2005). Successful innovation factors: to Dave power (power strategy’s head) fFor innovation at least four steps must be followed. It is true that nothing have lasting growth. The successful innovation companies follow the product life cycle that is based on S-Curve (Power, 2013). Successful companies have great and detailed understanding of customers’ needs. They recognize the problems and discover the opportunities on which they can work and bring innovative product to customers. This approach leads marketers towards lean development in which companies provide unbeaten offers to customers before termination of resource (Power, 2013)9 For innovation success there is a need to have new ideas and options. As apple example can be put into place, apple provided an exceptional experience to its users. Managers should think like the designer to design and innovate new opportunities (Power, 2013). For leading innovation; companies create innovation culture in their organizations. Examples include Google, gray advertising, Procter and gamble, and Starbucks (Power, 2013). Google supports and encourages its employees to produce new ideas by giving them an a day per week on thinking new ideas, gray advertising company to reduce hesitation award their employees with “heroic failure award” who give ideas that are too risky and may lead to failure. In Procter and Gamble revenue percentage is tracked through new services and products. Star-bucks went to every nook and corner of the world to take help from different managers for redesigning the café experience. Roles of Managers Bringing innovation is not only a crucial task but also the management of practices put together for managing the resources and knowledge for growth of innovation is also important the best example of this scenario is apple computer company; company made great efforts for being innovative but they did not consider the major expertise for controlling growth. Therefore balance between and new-stream and mainstream resources should be managed by managers. AS Cisco company did. The vision and strategy of a company should be clearly communicated because it has an important association with innovation management. Managers should be able to manage the merger and recombination of resources in dissimilar markets. et al 1999). References Afuah, A. (2003). Innovation management: strategies, implementation and profits. Babbie, E.R. (2010). The Practice of Social Research. Cengage Learning Kotler P., Armstrong, G.,Wong, V. and Saunders, J. (2008). Principles of Marketing (5th European Ed.) London: FT Prentice Hall Goffin, K., & Mitchell, R. (2005). Innovation management. London: Palgrave Macmillan. Landry, R., Amara, N., and Becheikh, N. (2008). Entrepreneurship And Innovation Organizations, Institutions, Systems And Regions. Available From http://www2.druid.dk/conferences/viewpaper.php?id=3378&cf=29 [Accessed 2nd January, 2014] Nisen, M. (2012). How Apple, Samsung, And Google Take Different Approaches To Innovation. Business Insider, Available From http://www.businessinsider.com/how-apple-samsung-and-google-take-different-approaches-to-innovation-2012-11 [Accessed 2nd January, 2014] Power, D. (2013). Innovation Strategy: 4 Key Tactics of Top Growth Companies. Harvard, Available From http://www.dce.harvard.edu/professional/blog/innovation-strategy-4-key-tactics-top-growth-companies [Accessed 2nd January, 2014] Pyka, A., & Scharnhorst, A. (Eds.). (2009). Innovation networks: new approaches in modelling and analyzing. Springer. Robbins, S. P., & Coulter, M. (1997). Managing change and innovation. Management, pp. 379-08. Turner, S. (2012). Presentation: The Evolution of Cell Phones. Fox School of Business, available from http://community.mis.temple.edu/mis3538c2/2012/03/28/presentation-the-evolution-of-cell-phones/ [Accessed 2nd January, 2014] Research and Innovation Policy: A Systems World Needs systems evaluation”, Science and Public Policy, Vol. 13 (1), 3-17.Culture Conglomerates: Consolidation in the Motion Picture and Television Industries”, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, pp. 19 performance satisfaction, Vol. 19, (4), 297-307.”, Management Sciences, Vol. 41 (7), 1224-1237. Read More