Strategic Management of Technological Innovation

by
Rodger Hughes

Overview
This is a short summary of Strategic Management of Technological Innovation (Schilling, 2009),
Describing Schilling’s view on the importance of technological innovation.

Chapter 1 Summary
Globalization has been instrumental in technological innovation processes. As companies and firms become more competitive in the world market, they need to harness creativity and channel it to remain competitive. While some companies may remain highly competitive in niche industries, most must change their practices and continue to develop new strategies to perfect improve or totally change their products. Increasing product variants is one way companies can
Research and Development There are two ways that research and development incorporates innovative techniques within a firm; a. Basic Research – this type of R&D is usually used to advance knowledge within a given field or topic and does not usually have long-term commercial results. b. Applied Research – is research that applies knowledge for specific commercial results.
Some advances in R&D are the result of several different paths, or linkages (as described b y Schilling) and include Alliances, Customers, Suppliers and complementors. Companies may collaborate mainly with universities, suppliers and customers, but as Schilling points out, there are many complement
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r research and development activities that involve competitors as well (such as parts that can fit another company’s device).
Universities and government also play major roles in R&D. Many universities have set up technology transfer programs to move innovations to the market place faster. Laws have been created to help universities capitalize on inventions and innovations, sharing in profit gained from their ideas. The government has been very active in the