Revolutionary and Normal Innovations

Revolutionary and Normal Innovations

Revolutionary and Normal Innovations

Kuhn describes a revolutionary paradigm in science as an achievement which possesses two characteristics: (a) It is sufficiently unprecedented to attract an enduring group of adherents from competing modes of scientific activities and (b) It is sufficiently open-ended to leave all sorts of problems to solve.

If we substitute "scientific, engineering, entrepreneurial, and management activities" for "scientific activities" in the above, these words are equally applicable to technological (as against scientific) innovation. Thus we may integrate the Kuhn, Abernathy-Utterback and Sahal treatments and define two types of innovations.

Revolutionary InnovationsThese may be based upon major inventions that create a new industry (e.g., the transistor) or alternatively, a step-wise improvement incapability (e.g., the change from discrete transistors to ICs) in amature industry. They may also be associated with a creative symbiosis of previously unrelated technologies. They invoke new paradigmic frameworks for technological (as against scientific) puzzlesolving expressed in the dominant design or technological guidepost.

Revolutionary technological innovations are comparatively rare,but do occur more frequently than their scientific counterparts. Liketheir scientific counterparts they readily attract an enduring group of adherents from competing modes of technological activity. Thismay take the form of invasions of mature industries by "outsiders."

Furthermore, the revolutionary innovations create opportunities for small entrepreneurial firms to establish themselves as majorcorporate entities. This is dramatically illustrated in the growths ofTexas Instruments and Intel, based upon the revolutionary innovations of the transistor and ICs respectively. Thus top managementsof companies in mature industries need to be continuously sensitiveto the "threats" of revolutionary innovations. This makes it desirable for mature companies to engage in "technology monitoring" to detect the "signals of technological change.

Paradoxically, revolutionary innovations must also be approached circumspectly. They may require a substantial front-endcommitment of corporate resources and, as the Great Eastern example cited in the previous section illustrates, can cause commercial disasters if introduced prematurely. Also, because of the unpredictable markets created by revolutionary innovations, a companyintroducing one may experience failure for reasons largely outsideits control. This was EMI's experience with the CAT scanner.

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