General

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SOSC 111 - Science Technology and Society
Today Innovation Sources and Models Week 8,
October 19, 1998 Dr. Vincent G. Duffy -
IEEM http//www-ieem.ust.hk/dfaculty/duffy/111
email vduffy_at_ust.hk
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Whats the difference between invention and
innovation?

• Invention is the first expression of a new
  technology.
• Innovation is the introduction of a new
  technology.

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Sources of Innovation Where do Innovations Come
From?

• Typically we think of most innovations as coming
  from the RD (research and development) process.
• This is primarily the case for 20th century
  technologies.
• RD has been sponsored by both industry and
  government.

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What kind of RD produces the most innovations?

• Governments and business allocate large resources
  to to technological development, especially
  innovation, because it so important to economic
  growth.
• In order to allocate resources efficiently, it
  would be good if we knew where innovations
  originate.
• For many decades the fundamental question has
  been whether innovations are the result of
  long-term, undirected scientific research, or the
  product of short-term engineering research.

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RD defined

• Basic research - usually undirected, not toward a
  specific goal, other than knowledge
• Applied research - mission oriented research - a
  mix of scientific and engineering activities
• Development - the stage at which an
  innovation/technological product is created

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HINDSIGHT A look back...

• In the late 1960s, the US Department of Defense
  funded a study of the development of 20 weapons
  systems in the US.
• studied over 700 research events
• test if innovations came from undirected
  scientific research, directed scientific
  research, or engineering development.
• know where to direct resources and better manage
  the development of innovations.

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HINDSIGHT Conclusions

• of Events
• Scientific
• Non-mission oriented 0.3
• Mission oriented 8.7
• Engineering
• Technological/Dev. 91
• The HINDSIGHT study angered many scientists, for
  it implicitly threatened scientific funding.

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• TRACES identified 341 research events.

• of Research Events
• Non-mission oriented 70
• Mission oriented 20
• Development 10
• TRACES, unlike HINDSIGHT, looked at the long term
  influence of science.
• They found that 45 of the non-mission research,
  or 32 of the total research
• was done 30 years before the innovation.

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• As noted in the TRACES study, 32 of total
  research was done 35 years before the innovation
• 56 was done 15 years before.
• Technological innovations dont necessarily
  depend on the latest scientific advances.
• Conversely, scientific knowledge often takes a
  long time before it is found useful.

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Our Conclusions

• The obvious lesson is that it is very hard to
  judge where technologies come from.
• And, depending on who does the study, there will
  probably be bias towards or against scientific
  research.
• More importantly, modern technologies do depend
  on undirected scientific research, but often that
  scientific research is quite old.
• But how can the conclusions of the 2 studies be
  so different?

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Fundamental Problem of These Studies

• All of the studies assumed a linear model of
  technological development. That is, they assumed
  that innovations all begin with scientific
  knowledge.
• The terms basic, applied, and development are
  weak categories for understanding innovation
  because they poorly model the actual development
  of technology.

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Models of Innovation1. Linear Model (Applied
Science Model)
Science Engineering Society
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Linear Model (Applied Science Model)
Science Engineering Society
Basic Research Applied Research Developmen
t Society
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Linear Model (Applied Science Model)
Science Engineering Society
Basic Research Applied Research Developmen
t Society
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• Q.1 Are the examples of Quality circle an example
  of linear model or non linear model?
• Q.2. What is the difference between the linear
  and non-linear models? Give an example.
• All of the studies assumed a linear model of
  technological development. That is, they assumed
  that innovations all begin with scientific
  knowledge.

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2. Non-linear Model
Science Engineering Society
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Non-linear Innovation Model A more detailed
view
Science
Engineering
Idea Research Design Manufacture
Operation
Society
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• So far we have focused on innovations that begin
  at a conceptual level (with an idea). The idea
  may come from markets, from engineers, and even
  scientists.
• Eventually this idea is turned into a product, or
  an improved product
• more next timeRD who should pay?
• We could redraw the model to account for other
  variants.

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Non-linear Innovation Model(2a.
Learning-by-Doing Variation)

• A very large proportion of innovations come from
  the production, or manufacturing, process.
• We call these learning-by-doing innovations,
  because they were learned while people were
  trying to make the product.

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Learning-By-Doing

• Managers and engineers often forget about the
  learning-by-doing process.
• They sometimes assume that once a product has
  left the design stage, that it no longer requires
  improvement.
• Some of the most important improvements, however,
  come after the design stage, especially in the
  manufacturing stage.

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Non-linear Innovation Model(2b.
Learning-by-Using Variation)

• This occurs outside of the design and production
  of an innovation.
• In the design and production stages, the
  performance of a product is uncertain.
• Only after prolonged use do we come to understand
  how products perform (the operational stage).

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Non-linear Innovation Model(Learning-by-Using
Variation)

• Through learning-by-using, innovations become
  optimized.
• There are two types of learning-by-using
• 2b.1 Embodied (new ideas cause changes in the
  physical product)
• 2b.2 Disembodied (new ideas cause changes in the
  use or operation of the product)

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Non-linear model embodied or disembodied change?

• H.K. Stadium (innovations)
• 1. wear gloves in stadium
• 2. put dome on stadium
• 3. wear headphones
• embodied or disembodied change?
• embodied - physical change
• disembodied - no physical/permanent change
• Learning by doing or Learning by using?
• How do you know?

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QOTD

• Q.3. What is the difference between learning by
  using and learning by doing?
• Do the Quality Circle innovations come from
  Learning by using or Learning by doing?
• If they are improving process then learning by
  doing
• if they are improving productthen learning by
  using
• Q4. Are they embodied or disembodied change? QC
  improvements change the motor sizeembodied
• learn by usingusually product improvements wear
  glovesdisembodied, put a domeembodied

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