Exploring over the Presumed Identity of Emerging Technology

Thomas Gillier () and Gérald Piat ()
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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

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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
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-00641765
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

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

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

DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2011.00614.x

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