Shifting Boundary of the Innovation

Shifting Boundary of the Innovation

     It is clear that innovation has become a global activity, with global inflows and outflows regarding the provision of many different kinds of innovation. For firms, particularly multinational firms, the globalization of innovation is more likely to take place whether initiatively or not. Originally, marketing was a local or a regional phenomenon. But as transportation changed and improved, trade scope expanded from a regional activity to a national, then international, until finally, in the late 20^th and early 21^st century we have a truly global economy (p 7). Just as the geographical boundaries of innovation are shifting, so are the boundaries of technological innovation. The structure of one nation’s economy, and the ways that a nation citizens live, work, learn, play and communicate is being transformed. Shifting organizational boundaries are creating new model of innovation and collaboration, with open innovation increasingly common, involving multiple organizations acting and cooperating together. Innovation is a shared responsibility involves several departments working together.

     Why does changing innovation boundary is regarded as a significant issue? Because at its most extreme, defeated to detect, acknowledge, and respond to these changing boundaries can lead big organizational failure. To a lesser extent, a lack of awareness of changing innovation boundaries may result in missed economic opportunities, disadvantage competitiveness, and being classified to the second division in an innovative nation, rather than competing for the championship.

     As the territorial limitations of markets have changed so the geographical boundaries of innovation have both expanded and broken down, to reshape our thinking about where innovation happens and where the people involved in the innovation value chain are located (p7). These changes are particularly important in the context of international knowledge flows, and developing economies like China and India that are making significant investments in boosting their knowledge base. Research and development and innovation were traditionally considered relatively immobile activities and to be carried out locally. However, responding to a decrease in communication and travel costs, together with versatile world economic model, mean that the incentives that firms face when reacting to the level and the location of their investments in innovative activity have changed significantly in recent years. As a result, firms are gradually transferring these research and development center abroad to have a better adaption to the local demand.

Just as the geographical boundaries of innovation are shifting, so are the boundaries of technological innovation. Changes in the upstream production of technology- combine and re-combining tacit knowledge and techniques from different scientific and engineering communities, for example, the downstream use of technologies-producing and allocating value arising from new connections, such as outsourcing problem-solving online to user communities or consumer groups (p16). These shifts in technological boundaries will compel business conducting a new business mode in the future. One of the most important issues for business and policymakers highlighted by research in this area is how technological innovation is facilitating new forms of collaboration that in turn is contributing to greater technological innovation. New technologies such as Web 2.0 and social network sites are enabling new modes of production and collaboration (P16), creating opportunities for businesses and consumers to interact in ways that were impossible in the past. These new methods of interaction can be seen as either a threat to the established models or a new development opportunity.

There are several forces driving organizational innovation. The globalization of markets, of production, and of sources of knowledge, leads firms to think and act globally, rather than focusing only on regional markets (P23). Take the new 787 airplanes for example. Boeing is a US company, but the 787 incorporate components from around the world: the passenger doors and landing gear are made in France; the cargo doors and crew escape doors in Sweden. Japanese production partners are responsible for more than a third of the work. India and Italian companies are also involved. This global sourcing is only possible through the use of advanced information technologies that enable participants from around the world to co-design the aircraft. Global production also often needs to be sensitive to local partnerships oriented to adapting innovations to local conditions.

     The researchers have identified three main types of innovation boundaries undergoing significant changes: geographical, technological and organizational. Shifting geographical boundaries of innovation are likely to change the rules of the game in their business due to a number of trends including, for example: the rise of new centers of innovation, such as China and India, and the contradictory effects of global challenges that both increase the importance of, and opportunities for global connectivity. With technological boundaries, one of the biggest issues concerns the integration of technology. The integration of technology and discipline allows the development of new technological solutions, which in turn allows a more efficient use of time, money and other resources. A progressive loosening up of organizational boundaries means that not only information and knowledge become distributed, but also responsibility and accountability- for design, production and increasingly, the life cycle maintenance, of products, processes and services.

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