“THE MANAGEMENT OF INNOVATION WHAT IS BEST PRACTICE IN THE MANAGEMENT OF TECHNICAL INNOVATION AND WHAT ARE THE LESSONS FOR TECHNOLOGY BASED ORGANISATION? MBA Degree in Business Administration”

Over recent years it has become evident that innovation is key to international

competitiveness (Hagedoorn, 1991). One of the main challenges for the managers of

technology is to develop and nurture local pockets of innovation (Kuemmerle,

1997) and transfer them to commercialisation and global distribution (Perrino and

Tipping, 1989; as cited in Berry and Taggart;1994).

According to Rothwell and Zegveld (1995) this interest in technology management is

fuelled by:-

1. Technology explosion i.e. 90% of present technological knowledge

has been generated in the last 55 years and is likely to increase at the

rate of doubling every 30 years.

2. Shortening of the technology cycle i.e. Time from scientific

discovery through to diffusion.

3. Globalisation of technology i.e. Technology becoming a global

resource.

The result is that these dynamics of technical innovation are …(short extract)