Research and Development (HL Only)

Research and Development (HL Only)

• Technical process of creating new ideas, discoveries, and inventions for commercialization or operational improvements
• Includes product design and manufacturing processes
• Highly expensive, often focused on meeting unmet needs or adapting to evolving demands
• Advantages include growth opportunities, increased productivity, competitive edge, customer loyalty, and job creation
• Disadvantages include high costs, skilled labor and capital requirements, time consumption, and high failure rate

Types of Innovation

• Process Innovation: Improves efficiency in production, such as quality enhancements, faster production cycles, better inventory control (e.g., Ford's production line).
• Product Innovation: Develops wholly new products or enhances existing ones, sometimes radically. New product development can address unfulfilled needs or changing demands. Positioning of a product or process influences consumer perception. Marketing plays a role alongside other factors like customer relationships.

Creativity Types

• Adaptive: Improves existing paradigms/systems through refinement and enhancement.

This quiz explores the technical processes involved in research and development, including innovation types such as process and product innovation. Understand the advantages and disadvantages of R&D and its impact on commercialization and operational improvements.