Meta-technologies and innovation leadership: Why there may be nothing new under the sun

California Management Review

Volumn 50, Issue 1, 2007, Pages

  Glazer, Rashi ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA   (United States)

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EID: 36749007668     PISSN: 00081256     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.2307/41166419     Document Type: Review

References (32)

1. In the sense popularized by Clayton Christensen, The Innovator's Dilemma: When New Technologies Cause Great Firms to Fail (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1997).
2. G.S. Carpenter, R. Glazer, and K. Nakamoto "Market Driving Strategies: Toward a New Concept of Competitive Advantage," in D. Iacobucci, ed., Kellogg on Marketing (New York, NY: Wiley, 2000).
3. See, for example, V.P. Barabba and G. Zaltman, Hearing the Voice of the Market: Competitive Advantage Through Creative Use of Marketing Information (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1991).
4. An added benefit of the approach being developed here is that it also facilitates another key challenge with regard to the new development process - that of forecasting the demand for an innovation. To the extent that the current situation is structurally the same in the sense described here as previous situations that the firm (or someone else) has encountered, then forecasting new product demand is less mysterious as is now believed to be the case in many organizations.
5. See, for example, M. Treacy and F. Wiersema, The Discipline of Market Leaders (New York, NY: Simon and Schuster, 1995).
6. N. Capon and R. Glazer, "Marketing and Technology: A Strategic Coalignment," Journal of Marketing, 51/3 (July 1987): 1-14.
7. To some extent, this calls into question the distinction between so-called "hi-tech" and "lo-tech" products. Hi-tech products are supposedly those that are "innovative" with respect to technology - in the sense that they incorporate and are based on "newer" know-how. From the perspective of what is being developed in this article, the distinction between "hi-" and "lo-" is not particularly interesting or important.
8. The methodology revolves around a systematic set of structured interviews (focus groups as well as one-on-one discussions) with both a firm's customers and managers, followed by a set of more quantitative survey questions that are then used to develop a series of scales that guide decision making. In the course of implementing the methodology with a number of individual firms in a variety of industries over a period of several years, a "meta- analysis" of the responses provided by participants displayed some interesting and important similarities and patterns. This resulted in the development of the typology of generic customer benefits and meta-technology responses to these benefits that is being described in this article. What is described here is not a rigorous taxonomy, but rather represents a "work in progress" or preliminary blueprint that can serve as an exemplar for a more detailed and perhaps complete treatment. Furthermore, while the underlying methodology is general in nature and while (at the generic or meta level) both the benefits and technologies described have a "timeless" quality and have always guided the commercialization of innovations, what is being discussed here are those benefits and technologies (and ultimately the derivative innovative products and services) that are particularly relevant to, and characteristic of, the so-called "information age" or "knowledge economy."
9. As described, for example, in R. Glazer, "Marketing in an Information-Intensive Environment: Strategic Implications of Knowledge as an Asset," Journal of Marketing, 55/4 (October 1991): 1-19. Information-intensive markets are those characterized by rapid turnover of information or knowledge with respect to the content of products and services, customers and competitors. In this sense, when compared with older less information-intensive environments, these markets are constantly dynamic and changing (often turbulent) and require continual information processing on the part of economic agents. Obviously, almost all markets are becoming information-intensive.
10. The separation of economic agents into producers and consumers is one of the main results of Adam Smith's notions of specialization and comparative advantage. While the gains in efficiency of such a system have been remarkable, the social consequences of a world in which any individual is essentially a producer of one thing and a consumer of everything else (i.e., divorcing the individual from the creation of the goods he or she uses) have been equally profound.
11. Failure to address the needs for "compatibility, "ease of trial," "ease of use," and "observability" has been one of the main findings from many years of research with respect to the diffusion of innovations (e.g., Rogers) into the causes for low new product adoption rates. E.M. Rogers, Diffusion of Innovations (New York, NY: Free Press, 2003).
12. As noted, the typology to be described is very much a work in progress. The particular categories that have been identified are not at all exhaustive or mutually exclusive; are often highly correlated; and, in many ways, the definitions or labels used represent but different dimensions or attributes of a more fundamental underlying principle. In practice, a given innovative product or service that has resulted from the technologies more often than not will incorporate elements that "belong" to several of the categories described. While the terms introduced are therefore not independent or orthogonal in the conventional sense, the advantage of the approach is that, by shedding light on the issue from a number of different perspectives, the result can be a potentially richer understanding of the framework. Indeed, it is hoped that, by addressing the matter in this fashion, other researchers and practitioners will be motivated to think about technology and technological assets in a more comprehensive way and either add to or refine what is presented in this article.
13. This is the principle behind "Moore's Law," the phenomenon predicted by Intel co-founder Gordon Moore regarding the gains in processing power that would be achieved as a result of increased production volumes.
14. Nanotechnology embodies "nature's" principle of "additive" production, essentially assembling objects from a bottom-up atom-by-atom approach. This can be contrasted with human-oriented "subtractive" production, a top-down approach characterized by carving, whittling, or distilling a purpose-suited device from a mass of naturally occurring materials. Nano-manufacturing also revolves around the principle of "self-assembly," where what is being made (the product) is part and parcel of how it is being made (the process) - i.e., all that is necessary for production is contained within the process and there is no need to "go outside" the system. Additive, self-assembly fabrication is the driver behind the remarkable results in manufacturing that are predicted for nanotechnology.
15. See, for example, R. Glazer, "Business in the Nanocosm," Harvard Business Review, 85/2 (February 2007): 44-45.
16. As discussed in Glazer [(1991), op. cit.], a characteristic of firms in information-intensive markets is their focus on strategic alliances and cooperation with other firms as much as on competition as part of their strategies. Products and services that enable this capacity would fall into this category. See also, A.M. Brandeburger and B.J. Nalebuff, Co-Opetition: A Revolution Mindset That Combines Competition and Cooperation: The Game Theory Strategy That's Changing the Game of Business (New York, NY: Doubleday, 1996).
17. See, for example, R. O'Connor, Planning Under Uncertainty (New York, NY: The Conference Board, 1978)
18. S.H. Haeckel and R.L. Nolan, "Managing by Wire," Harvard Business Review, 71/5 (September 1993): 122-132.
19. For a discussion of the increasing importance of branding as part of a firm's overall strategy, see, for example, D. Aaker, Managing Brand Equity (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1991).
20. See, for example, B. Schmitt and A. Simonson, Marketing Aesthetics (New York, NY: The Free Press, 1997).
21. Notable in this regard have been the identification and application of "organic" or "natural" information processing mechanisms such as biological systems (e.g., DNA) and light or photonics, which are the technologies underlying a host of innovative products and services in such areas as bio-technology and telecommunications.
22. Smart products are a component of the more general notion of "smart" (i.e., essentially information-intensive) markets. R. Glazer, "Winning in Smart Markets," Sloan Management Review, 40/4 (Summer 1999): 59-69. It is instructive to note that conventional "dumb" products actually do not require a customer in order to exist - they can be "put on the shelf" whether or not they are used (though the firm may require a customer in order to sell the product). It is also interesting that, while in theory, the distinction between "products" and "services" has essentially revolved around the notion that a customer is required for the provision of a service, many "service" firms have based their business models around "productizing" their offerings so that their operations can proceed in the absence of actual customers. A good example of this has been McDonald's where the food preparation (the process technology) is independent of demand (at least in the short run) - i.e., the hamburger is made even if there is no one there to eat it.
23. Hardware and software provide essentially competing views and therefore methods of information processing. For doing repetitive operations (i.e., performing the same calculation over and over), the "chip" is extremely more efficient. The trade-off comes with respect to a lack of flexibility, which if required, is better implemented through software. One of the key technology objectives in microprocessor design today is the "programmable chip," which is intended to capture the best of both worlds.
24. See, for example, S.M. Davis, Future Perfect, 10th Anniversary Edition (Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1996); B.J. Pine, Mass Customization: The New Frontier in Business Competition (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1993).
25. S.H. Haeckel, "Making Meaning out of Apparent Noise: The Need for a New Managerial Framework," Long Range Planning, 37/2 (April 2004): 181-189; S.H. Haeckel, Adaptive Enterprise: Creating and Leading Sense-and-Respond Organizations (Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1999).
26. S.H. Haeckel (1999), op. cit.
27. G. Day and R. Glazer, "Harnessing the Marketing Information Revolution: Toward The Market-Driven Learning Organization," in R. Blattberg, R. Glazer, and J. Little, eds., The Marketing Information Revolution (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press, 1994). In R. Glazer ["Strategy and Structure in Information-Intensive Markets: The Relationship Between Marketing and IT," Journal of Market-Focused Management, 2/1 (September 1997): 83-98], the author introduces many of the categories described here not as meta-technolo-gies but with respect to organizational structure and how the principles underlying the technologies are characteristics of firms that need to orient their internal processes around a set of core information-processing activities.
28. It is important to make a distinction between analogue and digital "thinking" and the degree to which something is implemented through analogue or digital "means." Analogue thinking is increasingly being implemented through digital mechanisms. It is also instructive to note that human beings are essentially analogue information processors.
29. See, for example, R.E. Bellman and L.A. Zadeh, "Decision-Making in a Fuzzy Environment," Management Science, 17/4 (December 1970): 141-164.
30. See, for example, Drucker, "Long Range Planning," Management Science, 5/3 (April 1959): 238-249.
31. See, for example, D.F. Abell and J.S. Hammond, Strategic Market Planning: Problems and Analytical Approaches (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1979).
32. T. Leavitt, "Marketing Myopia," Harvard Business Review, 38/4 (July/August 1960): 45-56.