Exploring over the Presumed Identity of Emerging Technology

Thomas Gillier (gillier_thomas@hotmail.com) and Gérald Piat (gerald.piat@edf.fr)
Additional contact information
Thomas Gillier: CITE - Centre pour l'Innovation Technologique et Entrepreneuriale - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management, MTS - Management Technologique et Strategique - EESC-GEM Grenoble Ecole de Management
Gérald Piat: EDF - EDF, createam - EDF R&D - EDF R&D - EDF - EDF

Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL

Abstract: While scientists are stepping up their efforts to develop new technologies, the ability of firms to determine the value of their technologies by identifying potential applications has become a major challenge. This article focuses on a particular phase of technology development: the emergence phase. When a promising new technology first sees the light of day in a fundamental research laboratory, its target markets often seem plentiful but are ill-defined. The inability to produce prototypes or to identify potential users makes it difficult to explore potential commercial applications. On the basis of four micro-nanotechnologies case-studies conducted within a multi-partner innovation project, this article aims to theoretically explain why the identification of applications from emerging technologies is not a trivial problem. That research analyses how technologists and non-experts interact during creative investigations on new applications. It shows that the technologists are victims of a form of cognitive fixation effect. Indeed, their beliefs and activities are guided by a stable cognitive representation of their technology: the presumed identity of technology. Based on a recent design framework, C-K Design Theory, the technological exploration process followed in our four case-studies is modeled and mechanisms to dismantle the presumed identity and to design an extended identity of technology are provided.

Keywords: management of emerging technology; technological exploration; identity of technology; C-K Design Theory; presumed identity; technology-push; technological innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2011-11-16
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ino, nep-ipr and nep-pr~
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00641765
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Published in Creativity and Innovation Management, Wiley, 2011, 20 (4), pp.238-252. ⟨10.1111/j.1467-8691.2011.00614.x⟩

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00641765/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:gemptp:hal-00641765

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2011.00614.x

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Grenoble Ecole de Management (Post-Print) from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD (hal@ccsd.cnrs.fr).