Managing Convergence In Innovation

Technology in several forms, especially Information Technology (IT), has a strong tendency to converge at varying degrees. This phenomenon of converging innovation will deepen and widen in future due to intense competition in global markets. Asian manufacturing firms in particular lead the global industrial innovation. Innovations as a result of convergence are often beneficial, improving welfare and employment. This book sheds light on the little-discussed idea of convergent innovation with examples hailing from Asia. The book also proposes new theories and investigates convergence at the micro level - a must read for academics interested in innovation economics and management.

Driven by the fascination about dramatic structural and competitive changes within telecommunication and information technology in dustries during the past decade, the convergence phenomenon has increasingly gained my personal attention throughout my work and studies. Therefore, not entirely coincidentally, this book was written as the result of my doctoral research at ETH Zurich, which turned out to be a challenging, yet highly rewarding endeavor. However, this work would not have been possible without the enduring support of several people. First, I would like to express my gratitude to my thesis supervisor Prof. Fritz Fahrni, for providing me with the opportunity to conduct exciting research projects in close collaboration with industry, and for supporting me with solid guidance and advice all the way. Also, I would like to thank Dr. Christian Marxt, for urging me to pursue the chosen line of enquiry, as well as for his devoted coaching, both at ETH and at Stanford, both within and beyond of?ce hours. Furthermore, I am grateful to Prof. Georg von Krogh, for his encouraging feedback and valuable comments during various inspiring discussions.

Technology in several forms, especially Information Technology (IT), has a strong tendency to converge at varying degrees. This phenomenon of converging innovation is likely to deepen and widen in the future due to intense competition in global markets. Asian manufacturing firms in particular lead the global industrial innovation. Convergent innovation exists as a constant disequilibrium between reference technology and matching technology; innovations of these technologies occur at different degrees to attain an optimal balance. Innovations as a result of convergence are often beneficial, improving welfare and employment. This book sheds light on the little-discussed idea of convergent innovation with examples hailing from Asia. The book also proposes new theories and investigates convergence at the micro level – guaranteed food for thought for academics interested in innovation economics and management.

Innovation contributes to corporate competitiveness, economic performance and environmental sustainability. In the Internet era, innovation intelligence is transferred across borders and languages at an unprecedented rate, yet the ability to benefit from it seems to become more divergent among different corporations and countries. How much an organization can benefit from innovation largely depends on how well innovation is managed in it. Thus, there is a discernible increase in interest in the study of innovation management. This handbook provides a comprehensive guide to this subject. The handbook introduces the basic framework of innovation and innovation management. It also presents innovation management from the perspectives of strategy, organization and resource, as well as institution and culture. The book’s comprehensive coverage on all areas of innovation management makes this a very useful reference for anyone interested in the subject.

Convergenomics is about the megatrends that are shaping how people behave and organizations work. In this insightful analysis, Sang Lee and David Olson describe how globalization, digitization, changing demographics, changing industry mix, deregulation and privatization, commoditization of processes, new value chains, emerging new economies, deteriorating environment, and cultural conflicts have led to what they define as a convergence revolution. Lee and Olson discuss this convergence revolution from the perspectives of technology, industry, knowledge, open-source networking and bio-artificial convergence, and they explain how human systems are transformed by what they have named convergenomics. Understanding convergenomics can lead to innovative strategic approaches and, the authors contend, more agile businesses are already employing these approaches to become and remain competitive and to generate greater value in a world radically changed by e-commerce. Business leaders and 'students' of strategy at all levels will learn from this book how revolutionary developments can be embraced rather than feared, and how technology that is potentially frightening in its complexity can be harnessed and used to enable productive collaboration and gain competitive advantage.

From technology giants to major airlines to government agencies, the landscape is littered with the shells of once-promising enterprises that failed to partner technology and business. Their lost opportunities and billions wasted provide a much-needed wake-up call to businesses. In this forward-thinking guide, author Faisal Hoque adopts that call to teach readers how to capture and leverage the power of business-technology convergence. The Power of Convergence provides the framework and mechanisms for uniting business and technology, seeding horizontal collaborations and partnering opportunities, and capturing strategic possibilities created through convergence. Readers will also discover the importance of not only laying the groundwork for the role of technology in business, but also institutionalizing operational practices to pave the way for continued success. No technology should be developed or deployed without a full vision of how it serves the greater needs of the company. Rather, technology should be so tightly intertwined with strategy that the two drive each other, with each at the ready when market opportunity materializes--however suddenly. With compelling examples of successes and failures at organizations from Ford Motor Company to the FBI, The Power of Convergence provides business leaders with the tools they need to overcome the business/technology disconnect and utilize these both to achieve sustainable results.

Convergence has gained an enormous amount of attention in media studies within the last several years. It is used to describe the merging of formerly distinct functions, markets and fields of application, which has changed the way companies operate and consumers perceive and process media content. These transformations have not only led business practices to change and required companies to adapt to new conditions, they also continue to have a lasting impact on research in this area. This book’s main purpose is to shed some light on crucial phenomena of media and convergence management, while also addressing more specific issues brought about by innovations related to media, technologies, industries, business models, consumer behavior and content management. This book gathers insights from renowned academic researchers and pursues a highly interdisciplinary approach. It will serve as a valuable reference guide for students, practitioners and researchers interested in media convergence processes.

This book deals with both the understanding of, and the explanation of, knowledge about the causes, processes, and patterns of convergence innovation. It argues that the process of convergence innovation is a continuous disequilibrium between reference technology and its matching technology, adjusting the optimal balance between the functions of the two technologies. Contributors describe how convergence innovation is a learning process that requires both vertical and horizontal convergence, and case studies explore the different types of convergence innovation such as outside-in and inside-out. Convergence innovation has been taking place mainly by applying IT technologies to vast areas of conventional technologies, so that individuals or firms reap the benefits of the convergence between IT and conventional technologies. Such innovations are made possible by convergence, and they ultimately improve the welfare of human beings as companies solve diverse problems and increase employment. Examples in this book include biochemical companies in Indonesia, who were able to increase their market shares in bio-fertilizer and bio-pesticide products through bio-based technological convergence; and textile machinery firms in South Korea who have been survived by achieving convergence innovation on their core competences. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Asian Journal of Technology Innovation.