Q1 What could a firm do to increase its employee creativity?

Personal

• Allow proper risk taking
• Encourage innovative employee
• Reduce process complexity: paperwork, documentation, logging etc.
• Reduce working pressure

Inter-personal

• Encourage collaboration
• Holding meeting sessions for innovation

Organizational

• Create innovative internal environment
• Understand external environment
• Offer proper support to employees

Q2 what factors a firm must carefully consider in deciding whether, and to what degree, it should protect its innovation?

Nature of the Industry

• Pharmaceutical, Biological -> effective, process is highly innovative
• Electronics, manufacturing techniques -> not effective, can be easily duplicated

Proper type of IP

• Patent -> Exculsive rights, but need to satisfy conditions. Also, need to be disclosed.
• Trade secret -> Weaker condition, easier to establish -> Not exclusive, can get duplicated

Desired market performance

• Protect:
  • Greater rent appropriability
  • More investment because of rent
  • Give the firm over the evolution of the technology used
• Disclose -> 43
  • Encourage rapid adoptions
  • Technologies can evolve faster

All things in 44

• Production and marketing capabilities, and capital–if unable to produce or market the technology (and complementary goods) at sufficient volume or quality, protecting the technology may hinder its adoption.
• Industry opposition against sole source technology–other industry members may jointly be able to exert enough pressure so that a firm will offer the technology with fewer restrictions.
• Resources for internal development–a firm lacking in sufficient resources to invest in the technology’s functionality and ongoing improvements may not be able to compete in the market.
• Control over fragmentation–is important when standardization and compatibility are important.
• Incentives for architectural control–are especially high when the firm is a significant producer of complementary products.

Q3: factors that affect firms to obtain commercial benefits from technological innovation

3 Nature of the tech

Radical / Incremental

• Radical: represents a significant departure from existing products or services in the market. It requires a significant amount of resources and often involves a high level of risk. Radical innovation has the potential to disrupt entire industries and create new markets.
• Incremental: the continuous improvement of existing products or services. It involves making small, incremental changes to existing products or processes that help to improve their efficiency or effectiveness.
• iPhone: touch screen

5 Timing of entry

1st mover

• First mover advantages
  • Brand loyalty and technological leadership 10
  • Preemption of scarce assets 12-13
  • Exploiting buyer switching costs 14-15
• First mover disadvantages
  • R&D expense 21-22
  • Undeveloped supply and distribution channels 23
  • Uncertainty of customer requiremnets 27-29

follower

• Technology: Imitation may be cheaper than innovation.
• Buyer education: Pioneer’s advertising enhanced
  consumers’ awareness.
• Employee training: Followers may hire pioneer’s trained employees. Knowledge spillovers.
• Infrastructure development: Pioneer’s investment in developing a support industry and in obtaining regulatory approval benefits others

8 Collaboration strategy

• 32, 33-38

6 External environment: Porter’s 5 force model

• The degree of existing rivalry 12-14
• Threat of potential entrants 15-17
• Bargaining power of suppliers 18-20
• Bargaining power of buyers 21
• Threat of substitutes 22-24
• Threat of complements 25
• Relationships between 5 forces 26