Category: Innovation

Introduction

Innovation is essential to the success of many modern companies, especially those that operate in highly competitive markets. Technological innovation, in particular, is the primary reason behind the rapid growth of humankind’s capabilities throughout the 20th century. As such, knowledge of the patterns for the creation and adoption of new ideas is essential for both company managers and researchers. This essay investigates the primary frameworks in modern technological innovation.

Types of Innovation

Innovation can be differentiated based on its applicability and overall influence on the technological field. Shmerling (2013) distinguishes two primary types based on these parameters: evolutionary and revolutionary advancement.

The former takes existing technology and improves its parameters, such as performance or production cost. The latter introduces a new approach that is generally incompatible with current products but has the potential to outperform them, making investment an attractive proposition in the long term. Both are essential to technological advancement, as one allows an approach to reach its limits while the other introduces concepts that enable new products to exceed those limitations.

The two categories combine to form the overall tendency of technological progress. When a new technology is introduced, it will typically lack the refinement necessary to outperform older approaches comprehensively. Therefore, it will have to capitalize on its existing advantages while research is in progress. The improvements will eventually increase the innovation’s capabilities to a point where the other approach will become obsolete and disappear from the market. However, there is an upper limit to the potential of the new technology, as well. As such, once the now-mainstream product achieves its best possible performance, it will stagnate until another revolutionary idea grows to a point where it can replace the now-obsolete method.

Main Innovation Patterns

The advent of the Internet and the global interconnectivity associated with it have introduced a variety of innovation patterns based on the massive amounts of information and processing power available. Powell, Gann, and Guo (2015) distinguish five primary types: product augmentation, technology disappearance, cooperation between companies, data trading, and turning internal routines into marketable products. While it should be noted that some of these approaches might not apply to every technological field, they provide a comprehensive overview of the IT industry.

Product augmentation is synonymous to evolutionary advancement, involving the collection of new data and performance improvements. Technology disappearance, in turn, reflects revolutionary progress and the phasing out of obsolete ideas. Cooperation between companies enables the creation of benefits based on the synergies between different products without significant improvements to the processes.

Data trading is mostly endemic to the field of big data, where enterprises can sell each other data in a raw or analyzed fashion with both participants benefitting as a result. Lastly, large companies typically create products for internal use that simplify or automate tedious or complicated routines, and at times these tools can be of interest to consumers after polish and reorientation are applied.

Conclusion

Technological innovation is central to the rapid advancement of humanity’s capabilities. Traditional types of progress include evolutionary and revolutionary improvements, which form the standard technology life cycle. However, modern technologies such as the Internet allow for considerably closer and easier cooperation between diverse and distant companies. As such, new patterns, such as cooperation, data trading, and transformation of internal tools into products, have come into existence. It is possible that further changes in the field will introduce new opportunities for innovation, and so businesses should stay at the forefront of progress to succeed.

References

Powell, J., Gann, D., & Guo, Y. (2015). TechVision: New patterns of innovation in the era of Big Data [Video File]. Web.

Shmerling, S. (2013). 03 Types and patterns of innovation [Video File]. Web.

It is just a few people who can comfortably discuss the topic “Diffusion of innovation”. Not many have even ever heard of it. Yet to those who have had the chance to know a little about it, it is a topic that left them yearning to have some more of the information. This has been the case for everyone who reads the work of the great author of Diffusion of Innovation who still, theorized the whole idea.

Everett M. Rogers lives everyone who reads his work wondering how genius he could be to have seen such reality. According to Robinson, Diffusion of Innovation seeks to make clear how innovations are spread in a society (Robinson, 2009, p.1).

It also shows how “other techniques and social organization principles are likely to spread along the same route” (Rodgers 1995, p.5). Innovation, on the other hand, refers to ideas, ways or methods of doing things or a product that are considered new in a society.

Diffusion of innovation offers insights on the factors which could make innovations spread faster, importance of understanding the needs of the various user segments and also peer-peer conversations and peer networks (Robinson, 2009, p.1).

Depending on the degree of perception, relative advantage, simplicity and ease of use, observable results, trial ability and compatibility with existing values and practices and observable results, all these qualities contribute immensely to the success of spread of any innovation (Robinson, 2009, p.1-2).

The relative advantage is measured on the basis of tastes and preferences of the users while the compatibility with the existing values and practices is measured against past experiences and the values held by the users. On the other hand, simplicity and ease of use depends on the degree to which an innovation is perceived difficult to use.

Observable results refer to the efficiency of the innovation. Trial abilty refers to the ability of innovation to be tested (Robinson, 2009, p.1-2). However, Robinson argues that continuous improvement through reinventions is the key to spreading an innovation (Robinson, 2009, p.3).

Everett argues that peer-peer conversations help in spreading innovations even more than advertisements and other similar interventions that are used in marketing. He argues that conversations alone can spread adoption since they help in risk management and also take care of any uncertainties.

The graph above depicts a clear picture of how peer-peer communication becomes more influential in spreading an innovation and how mass communication becomes less influential over time.

To emphasize the need to understand the adopters, Rodgers categorized the adopters into five groups: innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards. He attached values or personalities to each group. These values were in consistence with his findings. The following graph is important in helping to clearly understand the concept different user segments. Rodgers viewed the innovators as learned personalities who were ready to take risks.

The society views them as the well connected (Rodgers, 1995, p.357). They spend a great deal of “their time, energy and creativity on new ideas and gadgets” (Robinson, 2009, p.5). They love talking about their new ideas and through this the diffusion of innovation begins.

The other group is the early adapters which entails local leaders, people of high social status or in general people of high prestige (Rodgers, 1995, p.357 & 358). They might of the same class with the rest of society, but they have more money or influence (Rodgers, 1995).

They like being ahead of the rest do not fear risks and certainly have the money to invest. Others, who are afraid of the risks and the uncertainties, watch if they succeed or fail. The new innovation becomes a new discussion in the public domain and then it spreads even more (Robinson, 2009). Early adapters are, however, few in number.

According to Rodgers, the next group early majority is less learned and less likely to be leaders, but is, however, likely to follow opinion leaders. They many just as the name suggests. Redesigning the innovation to maximize ease and simplicity can really help in getting them buy the innovation.

The late majority and laggards are more conservative, “often poorer, lower status individuals” (Rodgers, 1995, p.359) who may require peer influence to give in to the adoption. Cheaper innovations and increased familiarity with the new gadgets might be the only way to get them adopt the innovation(Robinson, 2009, p.8).

References

Erevett Rodgers (1995). Diffusion of innovation. Web.

Les Robison (2009). A summary of diffusion of innovation. Web.

Diffusion of innovation describes how a new idea, behavior, or item (an innovation) is disseminated to a population in a given period of time through specific avenues of communication (Rogers, 2003). Innovations are not always adopted even when they have obvious and clear-cut advantages and Rogers (2003) identifies four factors of diffusion: time, the social system, the innovation, and the communication channels.

For something to qualify as an innovation it does not have to be temporally recent as what matters is that people perceive it as new. An innovation therefore is that which is perceived as new regardless of its actual age. A communication channel refers to the course a message takes to get from a source to the receiver and examples are interpersonal communication and mass media.

Time is a factor when it comes to the rate of adoption of an innovation and it forms an imperative element in understanding diffusion of innovations. The social system can be viewed as people who jointly seek a common goal.

The decision to take up an innovation usually involves five steps: knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation, and confirmation. The knowledge stage is characterized by someone gaining initial information on what purpose the innovation serves and how it functions, albeit the information is sparse at this stage.

During the persuasion stage the person actively seeks information on the innovation and forms an independent opinion about the innovation. Rogers (2003) points out that persuasions are more affective than objective-they are based more on feelings than actual factual information. The decision stage marks the point at which someone decides whether or not to adopt an innovation for their own use.

In the implementation stage the person puts the innovation to actual practical use. Confirmation is the final stage and it involves the person making an evaluation of the decision to use the innovation. The stage is also marked by seeking of information that is of a bolstering nature in order to confirm their decision and keep using the innovation.

The success of an innovation is usually determined by five aspects: relative advantage, simplicity and ease of use, compatibility with existing values and practices, trialability and observability (Bennet and Bennet, 2003). Relative advantage is subjective to the users of an innovation and it is the perceived “betterness” of an innovation to its predecessor.

Simplicity and ease of use determine the rate of an innovation’s diffusion in the sense that innovations that are easy to understand and use are likely to have a faster rate of adoption. The extent to which an innovation is consistent with current needs and is significant to its users determines the innovation’s compatibility with existing values and practices.

An innovation that is highly relevant to the social system is likely to have a higher rate of diffusion. Trialabilty is the degree to which an innovation can be tested by the potential user before the user adopts it e.g. a car that can be taken for a test drive has more trialability than the car which cannot. Observability is basically how perceptible the results of an innovation are.

Each social system can be broken down to five categories: innovators, early adopter, late adopters, and laggards depending on how quickly each group chooses to adopt an innovation. Innovators are the quickest and laggards the slowest to adopt an innovation. The graph below is a representation of how the groups’ frequencies are broken down in a population.

Figure 1. Frequency distribution of a population according to rate of innovation adoption. This figure illustrates how the five categories of innovation adoption according to time are spread in a population.

References

Bennett, J., & Bennett, L. (2003). A Review of Factors that Influence the Diffusion of Innovation when Structuring a Faculty Training Program. Internet and Higher Education ,6, 53-63.

Rogers, E. M (2003). Diffusion of Innovations (5^th ed.). New York: Free Press.

Diffusion of innovation (DOI) is a sociological theory that is targeted at explaining how, when, and why a product or program spreads across a social system. It is also concerned with how ideas of innovation diffuse across a population (Daim et al., 2016). This theory can be used to solve modern issues, such as type 2 diabetes, which is the most common form of the disease diagnosed in many patients. It causes the blood sugar levels in an individual’s body to rise much higher than normal. Thus, diffusion of innovation is one of the theoretical approaches that can be used to solve this problem.

Purpose of the Program

The main purpose of the program is to identify why and how the rate of type 2 diabetes is prevalent. It aims at developing a better understanding of ways of preventing the disease and managing its effects. Besides, it is aimed at identifying some of the risk factors that can lead to an increase in the severity of the condition. Moreover, its central goal is to initiate a program that can be used to assist patients with type 2 diabetes in controlling the effects of the condition.

Target Population and Location of Program

The program is targeted at helping patients with diabetes manage the effects that accompany the disease. In this case, the target population is individuals with type 2 diabetes. The location will be some selected states in the United States, where the rates of the disease are high, including California and New York. Participants will be selected randomly to ensure credibility of the results.

Program Development

The program will utilize the diffusion of innovation model in its development. There are five main constructs of the theory, including innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority, and laggards (Daim et al., 2016). Innovators are those who will be eager to be the first ones to try the innovation. It is targeted at people with type 2 diabetes seeking help to manage the disease. Early adopters are individuals who are ready to embrace the change that comes with innovation. These are the health professionals to be involved in the program. An early majority are the persons who will accept the innovation after a few other people have tried it. Consequently, the late majority are those who are skeptical about the program and would only adopt it if a majority of the population has used it (Şehbenderoğlu, 2019). Lastly, there are also those who are rigid and conservative, hence, are less likely to accept the invention. The program has to cater to all these constructs of the population.

Determinants of the Program

Some of the determinants of health that the program will affect include income, socio-economic status, education and literacy, healthy behaviors, and lifestyle. Both the development and implementation of the program will require economic resources; hence income and socioeconomic status are important in ensuring the success of the innovation. Education and literacy will determine how the target population will view the invention and whether or not they will accept it (Şehbenderoğlu, 2019). An illiterate person is less likely to adopt the technology as they do not have the technical know-how on how to use it or they do not realize its importance.

Methods Used to Implement the Program

The program will involve both personnel and technology to implement it. One of the most effective ways of implementing innovation is the use of technology. Most of the target population in contemporary society have access to technologies such as mobile phones and computers (Ward, 2015). Besides, health professionals will be involved in monitoring the effectiveness of the program and assisting the target population uses the innovation.

Results of the Program

The program is expected to help patients with type 2 diabetes to manage the effects of the disease. Positive feedback from the respondents will mean that the innovation is successful in achieving its set goals and objectives. On the contrary, if participants react negatively to the results’ inventions are negative, then it is an indication that the program is not effective.

Limitations of the Program

One of the limitations of the program is that it works better in managing and controlling risk factors associated with type 2 diabetes but not as effective as a prevention intervention. Besides, it is not suitable for people with little or no income; hence it discriminates against people with limited economic resources. Therefore, it is only effective for a selected target population, which means it could be unreliable.

Recommendations

The program is effective and will be successful if it is used in the desired manner. It is efficient in managing the effects of type 2 diabetes. However, the persons using it have to be educated on how to use the innovation and its importance in helping them manage the disease. The innovation should be adopted with the help of qualified health professionals and collaboration between patients and medical practitioners.

Conclusion

Diffusion of innovation is one of the most effective models of organizing programs meant to solve issues in society. It can be used to solve contemporary problems as it seeks to develop a new approach towards solving some of the social issues. Diabetes is one of the societal problems that contemporary society face. The innovation can be applied in assisting patients with type 2 diabetes manage the condition.

References

Daim, T. U., Behkami, N. A., Basoglu, N., Kök, O. M., & Hogaboam, L. (2016). Healthcare technology innovation adoption: Electronic health records and other emerging health information technology innovations. Springer.

Şehbenderoğlu, Z. (2019). Predicting the adoption of wearable health tracking devices: An application of diffusion of innovation theory. SSRN Electronic Journal.

Ward, R. (2015). The application of technology acceptance and diffusion of innovation models in healthcare informatics. Health Policy and Technology, 2(4), 222–228.

Interactive Online Game: A Response

What seemed to be quite a simple quest set in the context of nursing turned out a challenging task with several quests to undergo and social strategies to think over. Even though I tried the game two times, the maximum result returned was 6 people (the minimum being 2). Although the communication issues, which played a great role in the first attempt at attracting more people to the idea of a training program, in accordance with the existing sources (Schmidt & Brown, 2012), were finally resolved, due to careful speculations regarding the people who could actually have an impact on the process of program promotion.

Perhaps, one of the major mistakes that have been made in the course of recruiting the followers of the idea for the given program to be put to practice concerns the fact that they need to expand was underestimated greatly. Instead of adding more people to the list of newly made friends, I spent much time talking to the principal, which returned in a considerable loss of time and points. In addition, without having other people interested in that I had to offer, a number of activities, such as Presentation, Training Workshops or Demonstration, were blocked from use for me. Finally, the significance of mass media was also underestimated, which affected the results greatly.

The given experiment teaches that, when it comes to a health program promotion, it is crucial to appreciate every new member and try to attract as many newcomers as possible. By expanding social relationships, one can gain enough support to change the current state of public healthcare system (Cronquist & Spector, 2011).

Response to the Post I: Better than Expected

With an impressive score of ten to eleven adopters of the idea of introducing a new training program, the post written by Janet Tatoo deserves paying attention to. When analyzing the mistakes that she made in the course of the game, Janet specified communication issues among the key stumbling blocks on her way to winning the people in the game over.

Another issue that Janet mentioned concerns getting priorities straight. Similar to my problem, the given issue concerns the choice of people who can possibly assist in attracting larger audience to the presentation, the further program establishment and the program itself. However, it seems that Janet did pretty well, since she employed an efficient method by incorporating media in order to convince the public.

Response to the Post II: When Failure Is Growth

The second post that I read was much closer to the results that I acquired in the process of the game, which, quite honestly, made me feel much better about myself and my performance. According to the details of the post, the communication issue seems to have played a major role in the failure of delivering better results. Indeed, the fact that Carla Bingo, the author of the post put her stake on the relationships with the principal completely, thus, limiting her opportunities of getting to know the rest of the people who could help with the adoption process.

That being said, it is still impressive to see what progress has been made. It is very important that the mistake concerning the communication endeavors was recognized and that it was corrected pretty soon. An important lesson in social interactions, the given response offers much food for thoughts and new ways of development.

Reference List

Cronquist, R. & Spector, N. (2011). Nurses and social media: Regulatory concerns and guidelines. Journal of Nursing Regulation, 2(3), 37–40.

Schmidt, N. A. & Brown, J. M. (2012). Evidence-based practice for nurses: Appraisal and application of research. Boston, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.

Introduction

Almost in every country, the youth form a very significant part of the general population. There is a trend towards ensuring that the youth are empowered. Empowering of youth has continually become challenging especially when the standards of living are taken into consideration. One of the ways which have been identified to help in the empowerment of the youth is through the youth social initiatives. This essay will briefly examine social innovation in the Middle East. This essay discusses the social innovations with an inclination of showing the contribution such initiatives make towards stabilizing economic development.

Social Innovations

It has been shown that the youth in Middle East comprise of a third of the population. Definitely this is a huge portion of the population which can affect various aspects within the society. It has also been pointed out that the youth in the Middle East are continuously awakening to the fact that they have to engage in some kind of social innovation if at all they have to keep abreast with the ever increasing standards of life. In fact, it has been pointed out that the efforts brought forth by the youth are significant in assistance of some “impoverished communities all over the region” (Youths 1).

What does this mean for the Middle East regions and in particular the GCC? It is clear that the youth by the fact that they form a significant portion of the population have the ability to change the economies of their respective regions. It is a show of the huge economic potential in the GCC region. It is quite encouraging that the youth in the Middle East are rising up against long standing myths as far as social innovations are concern: for instance, in an application for sponsorship of social innovators, 200 applications were made out of which half were from women. Though out of the 22 innovators who were granted funds 4 were women it is clearly a good show that the youth are raising up against all odds to help in sustaining and developing the economy of Middle East.

It is worth noting that some of the social innovations hatched by the youth in this region are not only entrepreneur oriented but also have an inclination to promoting peace in the regions taking into consideration the fact the region is continuously destabilized with violence: “Mr. Awwad began Al-Tariq (the Way), a group in the Palestinian territories that incorporates the teaching of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Gandhi on non-violent resistance and promotes dialogue between Israelis and Palestinians” (Palmer 1).

Challenges

However, despite this enthusiasm developed and exhibited by the youth, there are some aspects which have been pointed out to limit the potential of the youth from full exploitation: management incapability and financial constraints have been pointed out as major barriers.

Key barriers to unleashing a wave of youth-led social innovation in the region are economic disparities and the fact that many young people lack work experience, training, and access to opportunities outside their communities; when young innovators lack “experience and a sense of empowerment, they’re not in a position to pursue their ideas. Innovation is stunted and entrepreneurship is inhibited. (Youth 1)

A lot need to be done to promote the youth social innovation whether they are meant for peace or for business. The government needs to give the youth some support in regard to the social innovation that they are engaging in.

References

Palmer, Stacy. Conference Notebook. Philanthropy, 2009. Web.

Youth. Youth Social Innovation in the Middle East. Opportunities for Youth, 2010. Web.

Introduction

The common understanding of innovation is often associated with introducing the most modern technologies or methods. Such terms are commonly used in the context of a business or state development, and this process has become an indispensable part of the existence of globalization. However, no less important are the tendencies of social development, innovations in which contribute not only to the development of business but likewise, first of all, to stabilization and improvement of the quality of society’s existence and human impact on the environment. Social Prosperity Wood Buffalo is a program of the partnership between non-profit and philanthropic organizations in the eponymous region of Canada to develop and implement effective new solutions to optimize the social sector and eliminate environmental and social problems.

Understanding the Concept

In the innovation process in business, there is a full opportunity to predict the necessary result, to foresee the increase in income or other benefits and advantages. Moreover, most of the disadvantages are apparent in such a situation, and many difficulties can be foreseen in advance. However, this becomes impossible when considering and implementing social innovation (van Wijk et al., 2019). Each person is an individual, and their opinions, goals and aspirations are absolutely individual. Public opinion is heterogeneous if the policy and goal of a particular organization are the same and appropriate methods are selected. In this case, not all initiatives within the social information process can be correctly understood and accepted (Ravazzoli & Valero, 2020). For the same reason, there are a large number of different methods, techniques and approaches, as well as disputes in the field of social research.

Regarding the relationship of social innovation to the field of the environment, the format of human harm reduction is generalized and more consolidated. People from all social and ethnic groups are aware of the importance of maintaining environmentalism in all human activities (Ravazzoli & Valero, 2020). Thus, this sphere has less resistance from most parts of society. However, it is much more challenging to implement social innovations in the format of sustainability accounting, control and compliance with all norms of commercial organizations (van Wijk et al., 2019). This problem is particularly acute in industries related to heavy industry, engineering, and mining, which are common in Wood Buffalo.

The example of the SPWB makes clear not only the same challenges facing the process of social innovation but likewise the role and necessity of this process in the current environment. The difficulty of presenting complex ideas and implementing them into reality, and the inefficiency of inter-community and inter-sectoral interaction underline the potential amount of positive change that can be achieved (McGowan, 2015). Thus, the overall role of social change is in the normalization of society and the pursuit of greater adaptability and resilience of natural and human systems.

Personal Experience

In the context of personal experience, there is an opportunity to draw a parallel to the importance of social innovation. It is equally important to understand why SPWB partnerships were created in a region quickly settled by people of different cultures from different places after the discovery of oil-bearing strata (Glover et al., 2015). As a member of a family of immigrants, I believe that the social innovation processes expressed in establishing a system of integration and interaction between people are at the highest level in Canada. Furthermore, setting up, implementing and monitoring such a system requires maximum attention and support from society and the state.

The main problems of today’s social sphere are diversity, human rights, and care for the environment. Thus, the formation of a collective understanding of shared responsibility for the development and implementation of standard rules of existence represents one of the roles of social innovation (Mattes, 2015). In my personal opinion, the interaction between people lies at the center of all human activity. Moreover, from my own experience, it is possible to observe social innovations that blur the boundaries between people, increasing interaction efficiency. Educational institutions are an example of such innovation with a long history. From a young age, children of entirely different ethnic groups are taught together, increasing their cultural tolerance and learning to ignore irrelevant differences.

Conclusion

Thus, the conclusion about the importance of the SPWB for the young region and social innovation for the success and effectiveness of all levels of society is confirmed. The complex but rewarding work of introducing community ideas, developing the social sector, and creating new venues for interaction has been an example of contributing to the region’s transformation from a gathering place of people with diverse interests who came for high earnings. Wood Buffalo is now associated with a region where young families are raising children and striving for a successful future, which only underscores the importance of social innovation for today’s individual.

References

Glover, C., Nordbye, K., & Jackson, B. (2015). The funder’s view: Three Suncor employees share their stories. Web.

Mattes, N. (2015). Leading a social innovation process. Web.

McGowan, K. (2015). Tending a social innovation garden: Social Prosperity Wood Buffalo and creating the space for change. Web.

Ravazzoli, E., & Valero, D. E. (2020). Social innovation: An instrument to achieve the sustainable development of communities. In Encyclopedia of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (pp. 1–10). Springer International Publishing. Web.

van Wijk, J., Zietsma, C., Dorado, S., de Bakker, F. G. A., & Martí, I. (2019). Social innovation: Integrating micro, Meso, and macro level insights from institutional theory. Business and Society, 58(5), 887–918. Web.

The idea of diffusion innovation theory was credited to Everett Rogers. The theory examines the process through which an innovation spreads through a social system via a given communication channels (Rogers, 2003). It scrutinizes how new ideas and technology are adopted majorly through a social system. This theory has been used since its inception when it was published in 1962. Everett Rogers put more exploration on how innovations are deeply adopted. He proposes four main criteria which influences spread of any idea in the social system. The four are named as innovation, communication channels, social system and time (Valente, 1995). Innovation is a new idea either by technological innovation, a practice or just an object. For instance, innovation would mean new way of doing things for instance in education, ne methodology of teaching or lecturing. This may involve even anew software or hardware created that helps in the teaching process.

Communication channels are the means by which the idea or the message on innovation is spread across in the social system form one individual to another. For instance, in the current technology, people can use face book, tweets or just presenting the innovation at a given conference. The third way which facilitates an idea is time factor. Time is the duration or the period required for the adoption of the innovated technology (Valente, 1995). Lastly the fourth way that diffusion innovation can be facilitated is through social system. Social system is a group of people who are interrelated and are engaged to solve or achieve common goal. People at the social system may be divided to form various categories which describe how fast they adopt any given innovation.

In the social system, the first category is the innovators. They form about 2.5 % of any social system. They are the youngest and the people who take risk in the group. They form higher social class. In this, there are positive and negative traits. Positive traits are able to interact with different other innovators while negative traits normally liable for risk taking.

The second category is the early adopters who are about 13.5% of the social population. The groups have got higher number of opinion leaders with advanced education and higher social status. It also has positive and negative traits. The third is Early Majority who makes about 34% of the social system. They make part of the social system that is difficult to adopt the new innovation. They will only adopt after Innovators and Early adapters. They too have got positive and negative adapters. In a learning organization, this is the group requiring training in order to adopt the new technology. This is the inquisitive group that may have untapped wisdom though they lack relative authority.

Large Majority form about 34% of the social system. They are slow in adopting new technologies and will do after Early Majority. It has got positive and negative traits. Positive traits are more vocal and inquisitive about the value of innovation. Negative traits have got low social status and financial standards. Laggards are part of the social system which forms about 16% (Rogers, 2003). They are the last in adopting any innovation in the social system. They also have positive and negative traits. The negative traits are geared towards rejecting change.

A Curve showing the diffusion of innovation capturing all the discussed factors is as shown bellow (Rogers, 2003).

This curve shows that many people adopt innovated technology at different rating. The main purpose as professionals is to understand the levels and make the people adopt the changes appropriately. The nature of adoption will depend on the nature of the social system in focus.

References

Rogers, E. (2003). Diffusion of Innovation. New York: Free Press.

Valente, W. (1995). Network Models of the Diffusion of Innovations. N.J: Hampton Press.

Article Summary

The article analyzed in this paper is Exploring the alignment between service strategy and service innovation by Lightfoot and Gebauer. It investigates innovation service misalignment with related strategies, which limits new service releases and access to business opportunities in the capital goods sector. The authors’ central thesis is that reconfiguring service innovation determinants so that they are aligned with strategic goals could result in revenue gains.

The study used a qualitative, multi-case approach to explore service innovation-strategy fit of 12 firms (case studies) from Western Europe. Qualitative data were collected through interviews of 80 people and internal reports. Data analysis involved the pattern-matching logic and inductive reasoning to identify company-relate, process-related, and result-related determinants, e.g., innovation culture, service quality, and market competitiveness, and their strategy alignments. The findings suggest that achieving service strategies-determinants fit is not easy and innovation success is realized only with particular determinant schemes.

Critical Evaluation

Research Question

The article sought to answer the question; in what ways are service innovations aligned with strategic choices of capital goods producers? This research question seems right given that its purpose was to examine strategy-innovation alignment in service delivery. It fits with the other articles reviewed that show that specific configurations of service innovation factors translate into profitability. Previous studies examine this topic from different perspectives. While some scholars consider service innovations an efficient approach to providing customized solutions, others regard it as fundamental to the success of capital goods. Nevertheless, sparse research on how to adopt critical innovation factors hinders innovation-strategy alignment. The article sought to fill this knowledge gap by considering the different ways these determinants could be aligned with strategic choices to achieve business goals. However, it should have considered studies on retail service innovation to gain insights into their critical success factors and strategies.

Problem and Methods

The methods selected were largely appropriate for exploring the research problem. Investigating innovation determinants-strategy alignment would require a subjective dataset from people involved in innovation projects. The authors collected interview (qualitative) data from 80 interviewees drawn from R&D, marketing, and product/service departments. Interviewing allowed them to triangulate secondary data and validate constructs during the research process. The sampling strategy also matched the study problem; it ensured that only people working in innovation projects of 12 firms were recruited. However, the use of qualitative data from a few case studies makes the innovation-strategy alignments less generalizable across industries. A mixed-methods design would have allowed a more comprehensive inquiry and helped evaluate specific configurations quantitatively.

Reporting of the Findings

Overall, the study results are reported in a consistent and clear format. The specific determinants and innovation-strategy configurations identified from the qualitative data are presented in three separate sections: after-sale service, customer-support service, and development partners. Direct quotes from the interviews are included to support the findings. The authors include a table summarizing the key findings of their research. The article overlooked the demographic profile of the participants. The interviewees’ characteristics, including age, gender, position in the organization, and experience level are missing. Nevertheless, the article acknowledges and explains some of the study’s limitations. It identifies limited external validity attributed to qualitative data, emphasis on three service strategic options, and a small range of determinants as the main design weaknesses of the research.

Logic and Support for Claims

Overall, the article presents a logical argument about the alignments between innovation determinants and service strategic choices. It aggregates success variables into three paradigms (themes) and explains how they fit with specific strategies. It cites verbatim quotes from the respondents to support its claims. For example, when giving the reason for the inclusion of consumer value (success factor) in customer-support services, the authors include a convincing statement from a managerial interviewee on customer’s willingness to pay for optimized capital goods. However, quantitative data would have given strong and compelling support for the claims. One fallacy noted is the attribution of existing service strategies entirely to innovations. Other service-related functions, such as information technology, could also influence strategic choices of firms.

Personal Opinion

The article’s findings suggest an effective service strategy involves considerations for innovation and reconfigurations of its determinants. Their presentation is logical and clear. I agree with most of these findings. First, the finding that configurations of innovation variables vary with strategic choices is consistent with critical success factors that are context-specific. Therefore, the determinants for after-sales service must be different from those of customer support. Second, innovation success must only come from specific configurations. Ordinarily, firms must leverage on R&D to provide unique services or products to acquire competitive advantages in the industry. Thus, a right mix of service innovation determinants is critical to successful R&D efforts. However, I do not agree with the argument that similarity in the variables is due to the different theoretical frameworks in this area. I would attribute it to knowledge diffusion across different functions, organizations, and sectors due to the pressure to innovate and remain competitive.

Contribution to Knowledge and Implications

In my estimation, the article adds to the literature on service innovation by describing its determinants that are used in three strategies: after-sale, customer-support, and development partner services. It specifies the characteristics of each variable. Thus, firms can adopt these determinants in formal innovation processes to realize strategic gains. The article also contributes to theory development by establishing some differences in innovation success factors aligned with each service strategy. This finding challenges current theories on service innovation.

The study has significant practical implications for managerial decisions and strategic choices. First, in selecting a service strategy, firms must look at innovation and reconfigure related success factors for optimal results. Second, when changing a strategic alternative, organizations must reframe the determinants, as they differ between strategies. Thus, a firm moving to customer-support from after-sale service will need to include new factors in its service innovation project. The aim is to achieve an optimized innovation-strategy alignment that is critical to business success.

Suggestions to Improve the Research

The article relied on qualitative (interview) data to determine service innovation determinants for different strategies. Concerning research design, I would suggest a mixed-methods approach to obtain quantitative data that would help assess the innovation-strategy alignments identified from subjective themes and achieve external validity. A semi-structured questionnaire with validated measures and items can be used in data collection. The present study sampled 80 individuals working in innovation projects. While these participants have hands-on experience of service innovation, they may not know all determinants. I would suggest a larger, more diverse sample that includes employees, customers, and experts to obtain high-quality data. Further, a stratified random sampling of case studies drawn from multiple service sectors and locations can give results that can be generalized to many settings.

The most interesting thing about the article

The most intriguing aspect of the article “Research that shines light on how cells recover from threats may lead to new insights into Alzheimer’s and ALS” by Brian Andrew Maxwell is that it offers information on how cells recover from threats and new insights into future interventions for neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer’s, ALS, and dementia.

The problem or innovation the article describes

This article describes a new discovery on how body cells recover from threats. It highlights how stress granules are regulated and how mutations in the same proteins may cause inherited neurodegenerative diseases. This knowledge helps us understand how these ailments operate and could act as a potential discovery for their future treatment.

Summary of the article

Generally, the article is about research done by Brian Andrew Maxwell to investigate how body cells recover from threats. The author explains how he discovered the mechanism used by cells to adapt to stressful changes to ensure their survival. He describes how this discovery offers insights into the future treatment of neurodegenerative ailments such as Alzheimer’s and ALS. The writer also highlights what is still unknown about the role played by ubiquitin in disassembling stress granules. The author winds up by explaining what other research is underway and offering suggestions for future studies.

The biggest obstacles to solving a problem the article describes

The biggest obstacle to finding a potential cure for neurodegenerative diseases is inadequate knowledge of the exact enzyme responsible for placing the ubiquitin tag on proteins. Scientists must address this knowledge gap before searching for potential treatments.

Potential improvements of the article

The author failed to offer scientific evidence to support his arguments. He could have given a summary of data obtained in the research to support his views. He could have also provided a comprehensive methodology to enable other researchers to replicate the study.