James Utterback

• Professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

New technologies can create whole new industries. New technologies can and often do successfully disrupt and eventually overwhelm prominent firms, which have built their positions based on prior product concepts or process techniques. Technology cycles are often described as following a pre-determined or predictable trajectory. Progress is seen to...

The confluence of nanotechnology and biotechnology provides significant commercial opportunities. By identifying, classifying and tracking firms with capabilities in both biotechnology and nanotechnology over time, we analyse the emergence and evolution of the global nanobiotechnology industry.

ASTRACT As scientists are able to understand and manipulate ever smaller scales of matter, research in the fields of biotechnology and nanotechnology has converged to enable such radical innovations as lab-on-a-chip devices, targeted drug delivery, and other forms of minimally invasive therapy and diagnostics. This paper provides a descriptive over...

A confluence of technologies evolves when more researchers begin to work at the intersection of two or more technology streams, and when products based on this intersection of technology begin to emerge. Thus, a confluence of technologies is characterized both by the bringing together of formerly disparate fields of knowledge and by the creation of...

Great opportunities and radical innovation are most likely to occur at the convergence of two or more technology streams. A bio-nano sector is emerging from such a convergence and may eventually provide radical innovation and new dominant firms. As there are no comprehensive reviews on this emerging sector, this paper provides a descriptive overvie...

A manufacturing optimization strategy is developed and demonstrated, which combines an asset utilization model and a process optimization framework with multivariate statistical analysis in a systematic manner to focus and drive process improvement activities. Although this manufacturing strategy is broadly applicable, the approach is discussed wit...

The complexity of the process through which new technology is developed requires the use of multivariate models and research hypotheses. However, few studies of innovation have attempted these tools; because of the expense of obtaining large enough samples and the qualitative or nominal nature of most data on technical change. Descriptive data are...

When an innovation is inspired by design, it transcends technology and utility. The design delights the user, seamlessly integrating the physical object, a service, and its use into something whole. A design-inspired innovation is so simple that it becomes an extension of the user. It creates meaning and a new language. Design-Inspired Innovation t...

When an innovation is inspired by design, it transcends technology and utility. The design delights the user, seamlessly integrating the physical object, a service, and its use into something whole. A design-inspired innovation is so simple that it becomes an extension of the user. It creates meaning and a new language. Design-Inspired Innovation t...

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Alfred P. Sloan School of Management. Thesis. 1969. Ph.D.

The term "disruptive technology" as coined by Christensen (1997, The Innovator's Dilemma; How New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail. Harvard Business School Press) refers to a new technology having lower cost and performance measured by traditional criteria, but having higher ancillary performance. Christensen finds that disruptive technologie...

In honour of the late Keith Pavitt, we introduce this Special Issue of International Journal of Innovation Management. We discuss the impact of Pavitt's work in technology and innovation on the management field. He showed empirically a number of core principles of technological change and knowledge, and how these affected managerial and organisatio...

Technology strategy variables tend to predominate as predictors of survival in the fast-changing rigid disk drive industry. Building on these previous studies, we here test the hypothesis that the technological and market strategies of a new entrant are highly interrelated and that their joint effect plays an important role in a firm's probability...

A firm's local environment can constitute a source of national or regional cornpetitive advantage. An important question, therefore, is how these environments come about and how they can be lost. In this paper, we argue that a local environment is a function of the process of technological evolution. It is a function of how certain initial and prev...

Technological innovation is manifested in the development of new products, processes and techniques such that emerging technologies often substitute for more mature technologies. The interaction between technologies is typically referred to as competition, implying a confrontational interaction. The setting of technology strategy is thus often conc...

We argue that the sears for a dynamic theory of strategy and for a link between the product-market and resource-based views may be incomplete without an exploration of the evolution of the technology that underlies products and heterogeneous firm capability. As technology evolves, so do industry characteristics, products and critical success factor...

The paper proposes methods to measure the performance of research and development in new product development. We frame these measures in the context of evolving product families in the technology-based firm. Our goal is to more clearly understand the dynamics of platform renewal and derivative product generation and their consequences for long-term...

Three major modes of technological interaction can be identified if the effect that one technology has one another's groMh rate is used as a basis for classification, viz. pure competition (where both technologies have a negative effect on one another's groMh rate), symbiosis (where both technologies have a positive effect on one another's growth r...

Technology strategy variables tend to predominate as predictors of survival in the fast-changing rigid disk drive industry. Building on these previous studies, we here test the hypothesis that the technological and market strategies of a new entrant are highly interrelated and that their joint effect plays an important role in a firm's probability...

Explores how innovation transforms industries, suggesting a strategic model to help firms to adjust to ever-shifting market dynamics. Understanding and adapting to innovation -- 'at once the creator and destroyer of industries and corporations' -- is essential with increasing fragmentation and foreign competition, and the consequent demand for high...

Cover title. "March 1996." "Technology Management in a Changing World, Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Management of Technology, Miami, Florida, February 27-March 1, 1996"--Added t.p.

Proponents of time-based competition argue that a firm will be most successful if its development times are shorter and products generated faster than its competitors. Intensive research in one firm shows that rapid development times are not correlated with expected commercial success, and that forcing rapid development when technological and marke...

The oscillatory behavior in the mature phase of some technologies' diffusion-related S curves are investigated, specifically with regard to the influences that other technologies can have on the oscillations. The notion of mortality indicators is raised, that is, whether such behavior is a signal that the mature technology is under attack from an e...

The economic, population ecology and strategic perspectives on firm survival are here complemented by viewing the same phenomenon from the viewpoint of technology evolution as well. The hypothesis tested is that the competitive environment of an industry, and therefore the survival of firms in it, is substantially affected by the evolution of the t...

Why some firms die while others survive? Survival has long been recognized as a basic goal for a manufacturing firm. At least in the long term, survival should be related to various measures of performance, such as market share and profitability. Advocates of population ecology have argued that life chances of organizations are affected by populati...

"December 1992, Revised July 1993." Includes bibliographical references (p. 45-52). Supported by the International Center for Research on the Management of Technology at the MIT School of Management. James M. Utterback, Fernando F. Suárez.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 24-27).

The speed with which to move concepts to market is a fundamental issue facing new ventures and their parent corporate sponsors. Is rapid development from concept to market vital? What pressures are induced by the urgency of product introduction, and can they lead to poor decisions? Can a more deliberate pace be recommended? Widely diverse new busin...

Includes bibliographical references (p. 22-24). Supported by the Center for Innovation Management Studies at Lehigh University, the Leaders for Manufacturing Program at MIT, and the International Center for Research on the Management of Technology at the MIT Sloan School of Management. Marc H. Meyer, James M. Utterback.

Includes bibliographical references (p. 15-18).

A model on the dynamics of innovation among multiple productive units and other innovation models are used to examine the emergence of a new supercomputer architecture. Data on entry and exit of firms producing supercomputers having three distinctive architectures appear to conform to the main hypotheses of the models examined. Based on these data,...

The technical, manufacturing, economic and policy considerations which are shaping innovation in structural wood panels will be briefly examined. A model of the substitution of newer panel forms for plywood, done in 1980 when market penetration was about 3 percent, will be presented. More recent data will be used to reexamine the model and validity...

Commodity businesses, including many consumer goods, materials, and especially metals, appear to be suffering from a lack of demand, and from inflationary pressures. Corporate responses to this largely unexpected turn of events at best reflect the confusion felt by many in trying to understand what is happening, and at worst are pathological, causi...

Interest in the economic and technological contributions of new enterprises has grown steadily and has captured an international audience. The formation of new companies, especially those competing in technology-based fields, may even be generally viewed as a potential indicator of a country's economic competitiveness and its capacity for industria...

"August 1990." "Presented at a conference on 'Competitive Strategies in the Telecommunications Industry', Center for Telecommunications Management, School of Business Administration, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, October 5-7, 1989."

The field of innovation studies is highly fragmented. It has not been adopted by any discipline as its own, and is in need of integration both with theory and other fields of study. A good deal of thought and effort is now under way to redefine and reformulate the field, through conferences and publications. No single set of variables will suffice...

Professor Albert H. Rubenstein has been Editor of the ENGINEERING MANAGEMENT TRANSACTIONS OF THE IRE and starting in 1963, the IEEE since 1958. In 1983 when I was President of the Engineering Management Society (EMS), Al informed me that 25 years as editor was sufficient, and that we should start the search for his successor. With his guidance we c...

This paper examines the relationship between research and development peoples' perceptions of uncertainty in their firm's competitive environment and their patterns of technical communication. Measures of both these attributes of six R&D groups, two in each of three industries, are reported and analyzed here. Technical people who saw the world (com...

How does technological change occur in an organizational, market and manufacturing context? How does innovation in products and processses affect a firm’s competitive viability? Do patterns of innovation occur from firm to firm or within one firm over time? If so, what are the implications for research on organizations and for management? Recent wo...

This study examined the relationship between communication and technological innovation. It focused on the patterns of technical communication among researchers and organizations to find out if these patterns had any effect on the success of technological innovation. The objectives were to: (1) investigate the effects of communication on technologi...

This article examines an evolutionary pattern of relationships among technology, structure, environment and other contextual variables in 31 manufacturing organizations in a developing country. The results of bivariate analyses show that younger firms exhibit more mechanistic structure, a higher degree in operations technology adaptability, a lower...

This paper examines the existing literature on new technology-based firms in an attempt to understand how such companies contribute to the vitality of an economy and to see which variables are critical in enabling them to do so. From recent research efforts, we have drawn together a set of hypotheses and organized them around four central questions...

A total of 164 innovation projects were sampled in five industries to determine the effect, if any, of government policy on their conduct and outcome. Sixty-six of the projects had at the time of the study achieved commercial success, in the view of the firms involved. Fifty-one were considered failures, while 47 were still underway. Nearly half of...

A model (developed in 1975 to 1978) suggests how the character of a firm's innovation changes as a successful enterprise matures and how other companies may change themselves to foster innovation as they grow and prosper. This has become a highly cited paper.

At the outset it is important to understand what is known about the way in which new products and new processes are created by firms, and to ask what this suggests for designing or evaluating government actions, programs and regulations, which may affect innovation. Much of the past work on this subject has consisted of attempts simply to describe...

The study examines the relationship between outside influences and the firm's innovation process. A sample of commercially successful and unsuccessful R&D projects of a number of firms is discussed in terms of diverse market, resource, technical and organizational factors. The stimulus for a project, the sources of ideas used and the influences of...

A number of models and approaches are being developed in attempts to anticipate the nature and direction of technological change and its impact on the firm. Under what conditions might we expect firms to use one or more of these models in an organized way and under what conditions might we expect the resulting information to be used in the firm's p...

This paper explores the role of applied research institutes in the transfer of technology to developing countries. Several hypotheses about technological change in developed economies are extended to this context. The sources of projects, criteria used in selecting projects, information used in the course of projects, and steps taken toward use of...

A number of variables were examined with respect to technical communication patterns in a research and development laboratory in the authors' initial investigation. Observed changes in technical assignment and administrative control were noted in three of the groups studied. Generally, the immediate response of a group of engineers to administrativ...

This article reports results from empirical tests of relationships between the pattern of innovation within a firm and certain of the firm's characteristics: the stage of development of its production process and its chosen basis of competition. The hypothesized relationships posed for the present investigation are a synthesis of prior research by...

The varied definitions used in the sources that have been discussed make any aggregate analysis difficult. A simple three-stage analysis of flows to, from, and within the firm was used to facilitate comparisons. Even so, each of the generalizations is drawn from relatively small and unrepresentative samples. Case studies may continue to be a source...

The process of technical innovation is treated as occurring in three phases: 1) idea generation; 2) problem solving; and 3) implementation and diffusion. Two questions are addressed in a study of the origin and development of 32 new scientific instruments: first, what information led to the origination of ideas for these new products, and second, h...

This work captures and analyzes the fundamental dynamics of innovative industries with a System Dynamics model. We selectively reviewed the innovation literature, identified the dynamics to be modelled, formulated a conceptual model of these dynamics, and then developed the initial simulation model. By design the conceptual model is simple and gene...

Traducción de: Dynamics of Innovation: How Companies Can Seize Opportunities in the Face of Technological Change Contiene: La dinámica de la innovación en la industria; Los diseños dominantes y la supervivencia de las compañías; La innovación de producto como fuerza creativa; Innovación y evolución industrial; Innovación en productos no ensamblados...