Technological Innovation in the 21st century

Running Head: TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Technological Innovation
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
Introduction
Innovation is all about the creation of the new knowledge which is applied to the
practical problems. It is the most effective way for gaining the competitive success. The
companies which are inefficient or slow to innovate tend to lose their market share and move to
the extreme edge of the playing field (Atlas, Hussain & Sagheer, 2019). However, management
and the mass market has their own roles to play to adopt the new technology. It is also true that
many innovative initiatives fail to succeed because of some technical feasibility, supply of the
raw materials and other commercial issues. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the case of
incorporating fuel cells in the energy industry. The understanding of the dynamics of innovation,
an appropriate innovation strategy and the adoption of the efficient process will be helpful in
analyzing the case.
Background and History of the Concept
Before 1945, there were no such fundamental innovation in the fuel and power but there
were some significant developments in the techniques in the previous century. The internal –
combustion engine is one such development in this field that was designed to meet the
requirements of the airplane and vehicles (Brinkman & Huang, 2016). In the 1890s, Rudolf
Diesel invented the high –compression engine. However, the invention of the technologies does
not prove that the adoption was also easy. Since the first part of the 1920s, the theory of the gas
turbine had been understood. In the year 1929, a flying instructor’s course was taken by Sir
Frank Whittle. Notably, a satisfactory gas turbine engine construction was postponed up to a
decade just because of the lack of resources and by the necessity develop renewed metal alloys
which could stand the extreme temperatures in the engine (ZHU et al., 2015).

2TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION
As far as the fuel cells are concerned, it began 150 year ago but were highly expensive
and bulky to be used in the automobile industry. The energy crisis which sparked a resurgence in
the development of the fuel cell in the 1970s, the number of prototypes emerged through the
1980s.
Discussion
The development of the new technologies sometimes entails huge research and
modification expenses. The first movers generally face this difficulty to bear the expense of
successfully developing new technology. The expense of exploring the technological paths to
yield commercially viable product also rests on the shoulder of these firms. As a contrast, the
later entrants do not have to face the challenges as the product has already been launched in the
market and how the product was created can also be ascertain about. The market’s responses to
the product can be determined and the development efforts can also be focused on(Nfcrc.uci.edu,
2019). Hence, the development expenses can be saved by the new entrant.
There are other factors too which pose difficulty in the adoption of a new –to –the –world
technology. The lack of appropriate distributors and suppliers can lead a firm to produce its own
distribution service and supplies. It delays the adoption of a new invention in the industry. On the
other hand, a new technology is developed in the firm, the other producers of enabling
technologies are often relied on by the firm. The enabling technologies are the necessary
components for the desirability or performance of a particular innovation.
Current issues
As discussed in the case, the fuel cells are considered to be the technically and
economically viable source of power. It is the prime candidate for the production of ‘green’