Introduction to Technological Innovation

At present, the life cycle of products, i.e. the time span from a product launch in the market until it becomes mature, is constantly shrinking. In fact, in some sectors, such as personal computers, the technological ageing of products takes place within just a few months. Therefore, the capacity to introduce new products in the market anticipating their competitors, earning in this way significant shares of sales, constitutes a big competitive advantage for companies. Companies, hence, should be in a position to constantly ‘innovate’ in order to preserve and improve their market position. Many would define innovation as ‘something new, an invention, a new idea’. In reality though, innovation does not only constitute the birth of a new product or process-related idea; it does include all stages, from the design and the evaluation of the way this idea is translated into action effectively. An innovation takes effect with the first commercial transaction regarding a new or improved accessory, product, process or system. On the contrary, the invention is an idea, a design or a model of an improved or new accessory that in most of the times does not result in any commercial transaction, although it could lead to a patent. Many researches have shown that innovative enterprises, namely the ones that constantly innovate, present on average double profit compared to the rest. However, innovation management is particularly difficult, hence the failure of many new ideas to result in successful new products or services. For this reason, various innovation management models have been developed.