The Idea Of Technological Innovation

This timely book explores technological innovation as a concept, dissecting its emergence, development and use. Benoît Godin offers an exciting new historiography of the subject, arguing that the study of innovation originates not from scholars but from practitioners of innovation.

p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.0px Arial} This timely book provides an intellectual and conceptual history of a key representation of innovation: technological innovation. Tracing the history of the discourses of scholars, practitioners and policy-makers, and exploring how and why innovation became defined as technological, Benoît Godin studies the emergence of the term, its meaning, and its transformation and use over time.

Innovation is one of the avenues in which companies can move up the value chain, and has become a popular demand from stock markets and governments. Many of its proponents though lack insight as to what it takes to be an innovator, and instead hype and impel innovation based on a romanticized view that with enough willpower and support from a board, investors, or government every company can pursue innovation. This book offers a theoretical framework, the License Giver Business concept, that clarifies the core characteristics of a truly innovating company, and differentiates it from three other company archetypes with differing core business identities. It describes key aspects and pitfalls in the practical application of the License Giver Business concept and provides cases from the marine industry and computer industry.

Innovation is everywhere. In the world of goods (technology), but also in the world of words: innovation is discussed in the scientific and technical literature, but also in the social sciences and humanities. Innovation is also a central idea in the popular imaginary, in the media and in public policy. Innovation has become the emblem of the modern society and a panacea for resolving many problems. Today, innovation is spontaneously understood as technological innovation because of its contribution to economic "progress". Yet for 2,500 years, innovation had nothing to do with economics in a positive sense. Innovation was pejorative and political. It was a contested idea in philosophy, religion, politics and social affairs. Innovation only got de-contested in the last century. This occurred gradually beginning after the French revolution. Innovation shifted from a vice to a virtue. Innovation became an instrument for achieving political and social goals. In this book, Benoît Godin lucidly examines the representations and meaning(s) of innovation over time, its diverse uses, and the contexts in which the concept emerged and changed. This history is organized around three periods or episteme: the prohibition episteme, the instrument episteme, and the value episteme.

A modern framework for practical innovation—from individual ideas to an innovative organisational culture Everyone says that innovation is important. The problem is that no one tells you how to be innovative. Innovation is a State of Mind sets out a step-by-step guide to creating innovative ideas and putting them into action. You'll learn how to generate more ideas with greater potential, how to grow and evaluate them, test their effectiveness and then implement the ones that are going to improve your business. Author James O'Loghlin has worked with over a thousand of Australia's best inventors and innovators in the eight years he hosted ABC-TV's The New Inventors. He studied what they do differently and how they are able to identify and take advantage of opportunities that the rest of us miss. Packed with engaging stories and a good dose of humour, this insightful guide helps you to make innovation a part of what you do every day. Change your thinking and identify overlooked opportunities Step around common roadblocks to innovation Generate better ideas, and find the ones that will improve your business Create a culture where innovation is part of everyone's job Harvest innovative ideas from the entire staff and find the ones that will make a difference Innovators see things differently. They solve problems that the rest of us can't, and create solutions to problems that we never noticed we had. Getting stuck in routine and procedure is the death knell for modern business. Most companies undervalue and underuse the creative potential of their people, because they underestimate the impact of continuous innovation. Innovation is a State of Mind shows you how to think like an innovator and create a culture of innovation, so you can stay out in front of the future of business.

Benoît Godin is a Professor at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique, Montreal. Models abound in science, technology, and society (STS) studies and in science, technology, and innovation (STI) studies. They are continually being invented, with one author developing many versions of the same model over time. At the same time, models are regularly criticized. Such is the case with the most influential model in STS-STI: the linear model of innovation. In this book, Benoît Godin examines the emergence and diffusion of the three most important conceptual models of innovation from the early twentieth century to the late 1980s: stage models, linear models, and holistic models. Godin first traces the history of the models of innovation constructed during this period, considering why these particular models came into being and what use was made of them. He then rethinks and debunks the historical narratives of models developed by theorists of innovation. Godin documents a greater diversity of thinkers and schools than in the conventional account, tracing a genealogy of models beginning with anthropologists, industrialists, and practitioners in the first half of the twentieth century to their later formalization in STS-STI. Godin suggests that a model is a conceptualization, which could be narrative, or a set of conceptualizations, or a paradigmatic perspective, often in pictorial form and reduced discursively to a simplified representation of reality. Why are so many things called models? Godin claims that model has a rhetorical function. First, a model is a symbol of “scientificity.” Second, a model travels easily among scholars and policy makers. Calling a conceptualization or narrative or perspective a model facilitates its propagation.

Researchers and students in the management of innovation will find in this book an analytical framework that articulates technological innovation processes and the creation of new markets. The multiplication of examples and cases helps the reader in better grasping the different aspects of the proposed framework. The focus on information and communication technologies is of high relevance: it enables the reader to put present developments in perspective, and this is especially relevant when discussing ascending innovation and the role of users and uses. Philippe Laredo, Universities of Paris-Est and Manchester, Coordinator of the European PRIME Network of Excellence Patrice Flichy takes the reader on a fascinating tour of the literature on technological innovation. Innovation is situated within the frames of functioning and use, offering rich insights into the strategies, tactics, improvisations and learning which occur through time. He emphasises the dreams and musings of inventors, novelists and the popular media to show how they mediate new technological frames of reference. This book offers an excellent synthesis of the literature and an original historical account of innovation with special reference to information and communication technologies. Robin Mansell, London School of Economics and Political Science, UK In Understanding Technological Innovation, Patrice Flichy s interest is in the genesis of technology. He describes the perspectives and interpretive schemes deployed by historians, sociologists and economists in attempts to understand the determinants, including chance, of the particular forms of products and systems that have come to dominate the market and play so important a role some would claim dominant in our lives. It is rare to find in one volume so informed a critique of the essential writings of historians of technology, contemporary sociologists and economic historians. His own special interest lies in the development of information technology and he puts his expertise to good use in revealing and contrasting the different perspectives and claims of these three schools. Louis L. Bucciarelli, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, US Working at the interface between interactionist sociology, history and economics, Flichy provides us with a language for charting the evolution of new technologies, as generic technical capabilities are explored, perhaps inspired by visions of societal change, and become stabilised and attached to particular conceptions of use. He offers us an integrated perspective on technological innovation, addressing the influence of history and social context whilst remaining open to the often unanticipated dynamism and surprises that may surround both these trajectories. This book will provide a thoughtful contribution to current debates. The critical literature review will provide a rich and convenient source for advanced teaching and research training. Robin Williams, The University of Edinburgh, UK How do the social sciences address the question of innovation and the relationship between technology and use? This is the core point of this book which examines critically diverse works, in sociology, history, economics and anthropology, in order to formulate a new approach. This reflection is essentially of a general nature, though the cases used to illustrate the analysis are drawn primarily from the field of ICT. Patrice Flichy studies how the socio-technological actions of the different actors, particularly designers and users, are organized within the same frames of reference. He also introduces a new element into the model by demonstrating how time is involved in technological choices. Understanding Technological Innovation will be essential reading for advanced teaching and research training in the fields of science and technology studies, and media and communication studies.

From the Industrial Revolution to the age of artificial intelligence, Carl Benedikt Frey offers a sweeping account of the history of technological progress and how it has radically shifted the distribution of economic and political power among society's members. As the author shows, the Industrial Revolution created unprecedented wealth and prosperity over the long run, but the immediate consequences of mechanization were devastating for large swaths of the population.These trends broadly mirror those in our current age of automation. But, just as the Industrial Revolution eventually brought about extraordinary benefits for society, artificial intelligence systems have the potential to do the same. Benedikt Frey demonstrates that in the midst of another technological revolution, the lessons of the past can help us to more effectively face the present. --From publisher description.