Learning outcomes

After studying this course, you should be able to:

• explain invention, design, innovation and diffusion as ongoing processes with a range of factors affecting success at each stage

• explain how particular products you use have a history of invention and improvement, and appreciate the role that you and your family, as consumers, have played in this history

• define key concepts such as invention, design, innovation, diffusion, product champion, entrepreneur, sustaining and disruptive innovation

• explain the role of intellectual property in invention and innovation and list the various ways that inventors can protect their ideas

• identify the range of reasons that motivate individuals and organisations to invent.