Taxonomy of Innovation* 

CHARACTERISTICS :

 

MARKET PULL

TECHNOLOGY PUSH

INCREMENTAL
  • Origin: anywhere
  • Bureaucratic
  • Short-term gestation
  • Deterministic
  • Market known
  • Easiest to do
  • Most common
  • Largely process-driven
  • Origin: R&D
  • Bureaucratic
  • Longer-term
  • Less deterministic
  • Market unknown

    • SEMINAL
    • Origin: sales and marketing
    • Quite rare
    • Long term
    • Market known
  • Origin: external
  • Non-bureaucratic (initially free from)
  • Very long term
  • Highly contingent
  • Market unknown
  • Design-driven
  • Flexible manufacturing
  • Most difficult to achieve

    •  

    EXAMPLES:

     

    MARKET PULL

    TECHNOLOGY PUSH

    INCREMENTAL
    • Walkman
    • Cable TV
    • Digital tuning
    • Stereo FM
    • Fast foods
    • New software
    • New car/truck models
    • Blue jeans
    • Better steels
  • Continuous steel casting
  • ABS
  • FM radio
  • Frozen foods
  • VCR
  • Optical sound recording
  • PC

    • SEMINAL
    • Artificial suede ("ultra suede")
    • Cellular telephony
    • Television
    • Automatic transmission
  • Tagamet (ulcers)
  • Microwave oven
  • Transistor (LSI)
  • Computer
  • Visicalc
  • Radio
  • Magnetic sound recording
  • Jet engines

    •  * Used with permission from Dr. Donald N. Frey, Northwestern University.

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