Maximizing the returns from research

Research Technology Management

Volumn 47, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 12-18

  Christensen, Clayton M ^a   Musso, Christopher S ^b   Anthony, Scott D ^c  

^a HARVARD BUSINESS SCHOOL   (United States)

^b MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY   (United States)

^c Innosight   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COMPETITION; COMPUTER SIMULATION; INDUSTRIAL MANAGEMENT; MATERIALS SCIENCE; SALES; SOCIETIES AND INSTITUTIONS; SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT;

DECOUPLING; INNOVATIONS; MARKETING STRATEGIES; MATERIALS INDUSTRIES;

ENGINEERING RESEARCH;

EID: 3142734945     PISSN: 08956308     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/08956308.2004.11671636     Document Type: Review

References (7)

1. Christensen, Clayton M. and Michael E. Raynor. The Innovator's Solution. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003. In particular, chapters 2, 5 and 6 address these issues.
2. This phenomenon and its causes were evaluated in Christensen, Clayton M. The Innovator's Dilemma. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 1997. The references in that book, in turn, can lead interested readers to a range of antecedent studies published in academic journals.
3. This observation is consistent with one of the fundamental paradigms of microeconomics: marginal price will equal marginal utility. When there is performance gap, every improvement yields greater utility, which merits higher prices. But when there is performance surplus, the marginal utility that customers derive from further improvements in performance is minimal, and therefore the marginal price that they will pay for those improvements becomes minimal.
4. This history is recounted more completely in Hounshell, David A. "DuPont Kevlar Aramid Industrial Fiber." Harvard Business School case #391-146; and in "Touch Fiber: DuPont's Difficulties in Selling Kevlar Show Hurdles of Innovation." The Wall Street Journal, Sept. 29, 1987, p. 1.
5. Chris Musso, a doctoral student in materials science at MIT, is engaged in a thesis research project whose likely result will be a model that identifies the factors that determine how long the commercialization cycle for new materials is likely to be. Musso's work also promises to be able to quantify the impact that each of these factors has on time-to-profitable-volume. We are hopeful that the factors in Musso's model will be generalizable to many different types of new technologies, in addition to new materials. Readers who are interested in learning about Musso's research can contact him through Professor Clayton Christensen at the Harvard Business School.
6. Xerox also developed this technology in its Palo Alto Research Center, in an effort parallel to that of IBM.
7. The reasons for this are described in chapters 5 and 6 of Christensen, Clayton M. and Michael E. Raynor. The Innovator's Solution. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2003.