Managing Innovation and Technology Transfer: Leadership Themes Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of managing innovation and technology transfer, using Tesla Motors as a case study. It explores the definition of innovation and its management, emphasizing the role of technology transfer. The report delves into Tesla's company profile, highlighting its innovative practices and marketing strategies. A comprehensive literature review examines various methodologies, including the analytical hierarchy process, literary reviews, and research frameworks. The report also details the tools and methods used for technology transfer, such as analytical approaches and questionnaires. Furthermore, it discusses the technological leadership innovation system, including actors, institutions, and technological factors, as well as data analysis techniques employed by Tesla. The report concludes with recommendations based on the findings.

Managing Innovation and Technology Transfer
Leadership themes
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................2
TASKS.........................................................................................................................................3
Company profile.....................................................................................................................3
Literature review....................................................................................................................3
Methodology tools...................................................................................................................6
Data Analysis..........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION ........................................................................................................................11
RECOMMENDATIONS.........................................................................................................12
REFERENCES.........................................................................................................................13
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INTRODUCTION
Leadership Innovation can be simply defined as the creation or the generation of new
idea or the alteration in the existing product by examining the taking the guide lines of the
Leaders (Inauen and Schenker-Wicki, 2011). The innovation is the outcome of a long term
study and the process of experiments. The management process of such innovation is termed
as innovation management. This is a very rigid task. The technology is the base of these
innovations. Hence, transfer of the various techniques aids in the formation of the new product
(Chiaroni and Frattini ,2011). The main goal of these research projects is to reflect the light of
the modern technologies that laid the path of the new revolutions. The AIRTO (Association for
Innovation, Research and Technology Organisations) plays a leading role in encouraging the
Economic and Social Science Research Council to achieve their aims and objectives (Inauen
and Schenker-Wicki, 2011). It insists them to expand the knowledge of current and effective
tools of the modern based technologies. This present report is based on the theme of managing
the innovation and the technology transfer. The report is explaining the different methodology
and the analytical approach that are taken to manage the innovations and the transferring of
21st century or the current technology through it .
TASKS
Company profile
Tesla Motors is US based company dealing in the auto mobile sector. The corporation
makes its own cars and named as a world most innovative company of year 2015 having the
gross value of $5.5bn in the current year which is increased by 54pc from the 2014 as per the
author said. The shares of Tesla have soared 15-fold since it floaded in 2010. The innovation
score achieved by it is 84.82. The company makes all luxurious electronic vehicles. The
corporation is being run by the Elon Musk, the tech billionaire. Company perform some of the
marketing activities such as sales, promotion, advertisements so that their overall brand
awareness can be increased can be increased in the marker. Through this, automotive industry
will be able to gain the attention of the people so that profitability level can be achieved.
Literature review
According to the Ollila and Elmquist (2011) the analytical hierarchy process is used to
compare the different solutions of the problem domain on the basis of partition and the result is
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being drawn by deciding the priorities of that solutions. It is quite effective as it gives a clear
vision of the solutions that is which one is best and where to implement it to the innovators. On
the contrary, the according to the view point of Petroni and et.al.(2012) this methodology is
not a successful one as the time is consumed in the partitions of the problems then making
their solutions in a tree based manner or in the hierarchical form. Additionally, each part of the
solution is dependable on one another so the final result is created by examining the all. If
anyone is neglected, then the whole system become unbalanced. So this is the negative point of
this method.
According to the Priem and et.al.(2012) the literary view methodologies are very
effective in making the quality based innovation. As this gives different ideas or clues to
support the production of the new changes. In order to create new alteration in the existed one,
it is very important to examine the past data or the information’s. It has been analysed that
after using the innovative leadership the overall growth of an enterprise can be enhanced in
more effective manner. This is done by conducting the surveys by the experts. So, this is very
aidful for the purpose of taking advice of the successful entrepreneurs. Whereas the Teece
(2012) said that this sometimes not give positive impacts regarding the development of new
innovations. The data analysis and research methodology is coined as the best one by the
Spithoven and et.al.(2011) as it aids in making the calculation work so simpler by giving the
valuable data regarding various methods or process that are involved in the innovation. But it
is not considered much better by the Carayannis and Campbell (2012) as the data drawn may
be not appropriate.
According to the Reed and et.al.(2012) the discussion of finding approach is very
effective in giving the best advice or guidelines to generate the new output. Because some
actors are new in this position and they need proper training or guidance to develop the new
product. Whereas this method is not so accurate according to the view point of Priem and et.al
(2012) because the advice may be wrong as well as time consuming. If the output is created by
following the wrong advice, then the created product become the exception for the enterprise.
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In addition to implement the new appropriate product the time limit exceeds and the
extra expenditure charges will have included. Every coins that two faces. One side reflects the
good while the other one shows the limitations of that. Therefore, the above based
methodologies impact the new innovations in both the ways positively as well as negatively
Popp (2011). Through the literature review, they overall gap between the current and past
research can be identified.
As per the view point of Roy and Sivakumar (2011) the methodology tools treated as
best remedies to innovate or develop the task of innovation. The data analysis is one of its
method that is quite beneficial in this regard. The data analysis collects the previous as well as
present informations and use successfully in the processes of innovation. There is no need to
build new data charts from the starting. On the other hand the Goffin and Koners (2011)said
that the past data analysis is not appropriate in doing the new innovations because it might be
wrong or do not suit on the current demand of the consumers. If the innovator make their
products by focussing on the past data then the product might not support the latest
technologies applications. So, the company tries to make the new manufacturing plans doing
following task:
 Conducting surveys: The innovators before manufacturing the new products conduct
surveys and determine the new taste of the population. They examine the lifestyle of
the richest section as well as the middle group of the society .
 Making plans: After conducting the surveys and examining the need of the society,
create new plans which suits the taste of the current population. The innovators develop
new product as per the budget of the civilians as well as the enterprise.
 Implementing the plans: Then under the leadership of the successful innovators , the
new workers implement the plans or scheme and manufacture the latest product.
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(Figure: Technology transfer process, 2016)
Methodology tools
The Tesla motors uses different methodologies and techniques to solve the existed
problem domain by identifying the demand of the consumers. Analytical approach can be
simply defined as the process of examining the problem domain and do the partitions of such
domain in order to solve them one by one (Gallouj and et.al., 2013).
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(Figure: Tools and methods for technology transfer, 2016)
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This is proved to be very helpful in underlines the difficulties by concentrating on each
problem. This improves the reliability and make the environment user friendly. Technology
transfer(TT) is the latest as well as popular topic in the field of research and Leadership
innovations covering the sector of businesses, private and public firms, various industries, etc.
around the whole world from the last few years. It is viewed or recognized as most useful
approach that aids in gaining the competition based dominance against the other
organisations . There are different ways of expanding the technological sources in order to
enhance the profit of the corporation and the growth in the various sectors. In the process of
the development fir the nation like United Kingdom or USA, the technology transfer has
proved to be one of the best solution for the economical as well as industrial development
(Sadikoglu and Zehir, 2010). On the basis of above analysis, Tesla motors can use
questionnaire in order to gather the different views of the different people who are working at
the workplace. Through this, different opinions of sample staff members can be identified.
On the contrary the story of success of TT fully depends on the choice of accurate
technology and the guidelines of the best leadership (Holsapple, 2013). The examining of the
performance of the technology as well as them polices is measured by concentrating on their
inputs and the outputs, as it became a standard for measuring the capital's value of the nations.
The inputs involved the various data like expenditures on research and innovations while the
output is shown as the patents and the copy rights. The technological leadership innovation
system is a modern concept. It can be defined as the network of actors who interacts with each
other in the specific area of the industry under the guidance of relevant institute dealing with
the creation, alteration and the utilization of the technology (Jacobsson and Bergek, 2011). The
technological leadership innovation system is a modern concept that is developed under the
scientific areas dealing with the study of innovation of different leaders. It is used to explain
the behaviour and the rate of the changes in the technological sector. The structure of the
technological innovation system is discussed below:
 Actors: The actors are someone who perform the innovation by making the correct
choices and actions regarding generations, diffusions and the utilization of the
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technologies (Felker and et.al., 2013) Actors are normally the leaders providing the
good leadership to their members.
 Institutions: They are the pillars of the leadership innovation system. They play the
roles of creating the norms or rules in a society or country. It can be formal as well as
informal. The formal is one that creates the rules under the order of government body
or the authority (Busse and Marcus Wallenburg, 2011).
 Technological factors: It consists of the several artefacts and the basic structures used
to build the innovations (Idris and Seng Tey, 2011). They include the working of the
technology which creates the base of economic value of such artefacts involving the
costing and safety. The different methodologies dealing to evaluate these critical
factors are following:
 AHP (Analytical hierarchy process) methodology: This is one of the good
methodologies that is developed by the Saaty in the year of 1997. The is increasingly
used for the purpose of creating alternative solutions by doing the comparison
(Davenport, 2013). The comparison is done by making pairs and the result are drawn
on the basis of priorities comparison.
(Source: AHP methodology, 2017)
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Illustration 1: AHP methodology, 2017

 Literary review: This methodology solves the vast problem domain by exploring the
present as well as the historical based information. As the historical data will exclude
or express the past experiences is proved to be quite helpful in making correct
decisions (Teece, 2012). This gives the experts or innovators an idea to search or make
search in the specific sector. They don't get confused as they are new in this field
(Davenport, 2013). The literary review consists of the views of the great and
successful innovators or inventors.
 Research framework and methodology: The research framework deals with the
various sectors of the evolution of the critical factors (Rafols and et.al.,2012). Here the
critical factors of the technology transfer are focused that is done on the basis of
Analytical hierarchy process.
Data Analysis
The Tesla Motors uses the following method of data analysis to discover the previous
information related to the development or manufacturing of their Products. The data analysis
and the results are listed below:
 Data analysis and results: This methodology is used to draw the proper
knowledge of the innovative leadership and the technology. This is created by
gathering the inputs of the innovators (Autio and et.al., 2014). The input
consists of several calculations such as the different matrices of the
expenditures and the priorities comparison done by the aid of AHP (Carayannis
and Campbell, 2012). Here, in this thematic analysis has been used where
different themes are formed and on the basis of that data can be analysed in
more effective manner. The sample size is 20 and the overall research is
conducted on staff members of Tesla motors.
Theme 1: Employees are satisfied with the guidance of their leaders.
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Highly satisfied
Satisfied
Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied
Dissatisfied
Highly dissatisfied
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
3
5
3
6
3 Column B
Findings: From the above graphical representations it can be concluded that there are
very few people who are satisfied with the guidance of their leaders. So, it is necessary for an
the organisation to more focused on their leadership innovation so that overall performance of
the staff members can be improved.
Theme 2: Staff members wants innovation into the leadership.
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Yes No Don't know
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14 13
4
3
Column B
Findings: From the above analysis, it can be interpreted that employees wants some
innovations at their workplace so that they can achieve their goals in more efficient manner.
So, after identifying the views of different people the overall performance of the automotive
industry can be enhanced.
Theme 3: Staff members are agreed that work should be completed in an efficient
manner.
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