Invention and innovation: an introduction

22 Part 3: 6 Key points of Part 3

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  • To succeed in bringing an invention to the market there are technical, financial and organisational obstacles to overcome.

  • Choosing appropriate materials and manufacturing processes for a particular new product is an important aspect of the innovation process. Environmental impacts and sustainability play a part in the choice of materials and processes.

  • Rogers’ characteristics of an innovation can affect how well it will sell and how quickly it will diffuse. He named the characteristics relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, observability and trialability.

  • Rogers’ characteristics of the consumers can also affect diffusion. He named the consumer groups innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards.

  • Government regulations can also be effective in providing incentives for manufacturers to develop new products and encouraging consumers to buy and use innovations.

  • Sustaining innovations offer improvements to the performance of established products and have a sustaining effect for firms. Disruptive innovations involve a new way of operating in a particular market, challenging existing companies to decide whether to ignore or embrace such new developments.

  • Utterback identifies three overall phases in the innovation process: emerging, growth and maturity.