Invention vs Innovation

Invention vs. Innovation

• Invention: The discovery of a new principle or idea. Two types exist:
  • Conceptual/Discovery Invention: Driven by curiosity about the world's workings, often without a practical goal. Examples: electricity, Jupiter's moons.
  • Practical Invention: Addresses a problem or need. Examples: Harrison's chronometer, Archimedes' screw. Many practical inventions lack a known inventor, including those achieved serendipitously (e.g., logarithms, discovery of America, penicillin).
• Discovery Invention Outcomes: Often results in a principle explaining a natural or social phenomenon (e.g., the "invisible hand"). May reveal previously unknown phenomena (e.g., new species, planets). Can be inaccurate in proposing a plausible but flawed explanation. Even foundational principles like Newton's law of universal gravitation are only accurate within a specific planetary scale.
• Innovation: The implementation of a new practice, potentially building upon a pre-existing invention. Driven by a goal of economic change and societal impact.

Forms of Innovation (Schumpeter's model & further elaboration)

• Product Innovation: Introduction of new goods and services. Example: vulcanized rubber. Includes "principle innovations" introducing new principles within known frameworks (e.g., the Diesel engine within internal combustion engines).
• Resource Innovation: Utilizing new resources or raw materials. Example: petroleum in the late 19th century, Antarctic minerals.
• Process Innovation: Developing new production methods. Example: Solvay process for soda ash.
• Organizational Innovation: Redesigning work practices. Example: Taylor's time studies.
• Market Innovation: Exploiting new markets. Example: European market for Indian cotton in the 17th century, expansion of the comic book market to adults in the 1970s.

Classifying Innovation (further perspectives)

• Incremental Innovation: Improves existing products or markets. Example: anti-lock braking systems.
• Adjacent Innovation: Extends the application of a previous innovation. Example: aspirin for heart conditions.
• Disruptive Innovation: Creates a new market segment and thus new supply and demand. Example: budget-priced cars in the 1990s (Logan, Tata).
• Radical Innovation: Creates a new market and generates demand that had not previously existed. Example: the iPhone, early automobiles.

Ce quiz explore les concepts d'invention et d'innovation, en détaillant les types d'inventions, telles que l'invention conceptuelle et l'invention pratique. Vous découvrirez également les résultats des inventions et leur impact sur nos vies. Testez vos connaissances sur ces notions clés qui façonnent notre progrès technologique.