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.