Question 1

The ____ approach to innovation assumes that innovation is occurring within a highly uncertain environment and that the key to fast product innovation is to use intuition, flexible options, and hands-on experience to reduce uncertainty and accelerate learning and understanding.

Accepted Answer

A)   compression
B)   experiential
C)   technological substitution
D)   generational change
E)   technological disruptionF) C) and D)
G) B) and E)

Question 2

The same techniques for managing innovation work equally as well after technological discontinuities as during periods of incremental change.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 3

Fully functional change occurs when incremental improvements are made to a dominant technological design. In a fully functional change, the improved version of the technology is fully backward compatible with the older version.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 4

An innovation stream moves from one technology cycle to another through the process of ____.

Accepted Answer

A)   technological substitution
B)   dominant design
C)   incremental environmental change
D)   organizational synergy
E)   transition managementF) B) and D)
G) A) and E)

Question 5

Which of the following is NOT a part of the experiential approach to innovation?

Accepted Answer

A)   hands-on experience to reduce uncertainty
B)   testing
C)   multifunctional teams
D)   design iterations
E)   initiative conversationsF) D) and E)
G) All of the above

Question 6

When significant improvements in performance can ONLY be gained through radical new designs or new performance-enhancing materials, it is likely that a company is ____ in the S-curve pattern of innovation.

Accepted Answer

A)   at its breakeven point
B)   at the problem identification stage of the innovation cycle
C)   at the end of the innovation cycle
D)   at either the beginning or end of the innovation cycle
E)   at the end of its maturity stageF) None of the above
G) All of the above

Question 7

Which of the following is an organizational impediment to creativity in a work environment?

Accepted Answer

A)   internal conflict
B)   rigid management structures
C)   bias toward the status quo (i.e., a conservative environment) 
D)   power struggles
E)   all of theseF) A) and B)
G) C) and D)

Question 8

There are eight general steps for organizational development intervention. The first step is ____.

Accepted Answer

A)   pioneering
B)   inception
C)   introduction
D)   entry
E)   startupF) A) and B)
G) A) and C)

Question 9

Which of the following statements describes an advantage of the results-driven change approach to managing change?

Accepted Answer

A)   It supplants the sole emphasis on activity with a focus on quickly measuring and improving results.
B)   Managers actually test to see if changes make a difference.
C)   Quick, visible improvements motivate employees to continue to make additional changes.
D)   Managers introduce changes in policies, procedures, rules, and regulations only when they will improve measured performance.
E)   All of these were cited as advantages of the results-driven change approach.F) A) and B)
G) B) and E)

Question 10

The typical S-curve pattern of innovation indicates that both early and late in the technology cycle, increased effort (i.e., money, research and development) brings only small improvements in technological performance.

Accepted Answer

A) True 
 B)False

Question 11

W. L. Gore
Bill Gore started the W. L. Gore Company in his basement when he left DuPont to develop innovative uses for Teflon (polytetrafluoroethylene or PTFE) , the then-new non-stick plastic. Today, W. L. Gore is best known for Gore-Tex, a waterproof, windproof, and temperature-resistant fabric that breathes and does not trap perspiration and body heat. Marketed as "Guaranteed to Keep You Dry," Gore-Tex is used not only for coats, gloves, and camping and hiking gear but also for protective outerwear worn by firefighters and military, emergency, and medical personnel. But in recent years Gore-Tex sales have steadily declined. One reason is that a number of alternative fabrics, like Entrant GII and eVENT, work nearly as well but cost only $6 to $8 per yard compared to $15 to $30 per yard for Gore-Tex. So the challenge for W. L. Gore is to reduce its dependence on Gore-Tex, which accounts for 21% of its $1.6 billion in revenues, by coming up with ways to consistently develop innovative products in other areas.
In general, W. L. Gore goes for dramatic rather than incremental improvements. On its web site, it declares, "At Gore, we take our reputation for product leadership seriously, continually delivering new products and better solutions to the world. Gore's products are designed to be the highest quality in their class and revolutionary in their effect."
Gore has created a number of innovative products, including Glide dental floss, the first floss that didn't shred, tear, and get caught in your teeth. Gore used its expertise in stretched plastics to essentially create a thin, Teflon-like tape used as dental floss. Glide was soon the number two floss in the market and today is the number one floss recommended by dental professionals. Gore then sold Glide to Procter & Gamble. But since Gore still makes Glide for P&G, Gore continues to make substantial profits that it then reinvests in other innovative products such as CleanStream filters, which filter dirt particles out of the air before it comes out of your vacuum cleaner; Radome, which is used to cover microwave transmission sites (think of the large "golf ball" structures you sometimes see around airports) ; medical stent-grafts, stents that are attached to an aorta to treat aortic aneurysms; and many more.
Gore has also been innovative in the processes it uses to develop new products. The company frequently asks potential customers for help when designing new products (i.e., design iterations and testing) . When Gore engineer Dave Myers was developing Elixir, Gore's best-selling acoustic guitar strings, which are coated with a thin layer of plastic that avoids the accumulation of dust, microscopic layers of skin (from musicians' fingers) , and dirt and oil, all of which affect musical quality and sound, he talked to Chuck Hebestreit, another Gore engineer who played the guitar. They, in turn, asked experienced guitar players to give them feedback on the product. Steve Young, who now heads Elixir products for Gore, said, "We gave it to guitar players to try out, and they were amazed that it [meaning the guitar sound] didn't go dead [unlike regular guitar strings]." Why? Because, thanks to their resistance to dust, skin, dirt, and oil, Elixir guitar strings last five times as long as normal guitar strings. Elixir guitar strings now have a 35% share of the market.
Gore also provides flexible options for innovation by making "time for dabbling." What this means is that everyone in the company is encouraged to spend 10% of their time on new ideas or products. If those ideas have potential, a Gore "sponsor," typically a more senior person, will guide and coach that employee on how to further advance their ideas or products. When ideas or innovations are to the point where further development requires a significant investment by the company, they are reviewed by a multifunctional team that goes through an exercise called "Real, Win, Worth." Gore's former CEO Chuck Carroll explained how this works: "Is the opportunity real? Is there really somebody out there that will buy this? Can we win? What do the economics look like? Can we make money doing this? Is it unique and valuable? Can we have a sustained advantage [such as a patent]?"
-Refer to Gore. The list of Gore's products clearly indicates that the company's core competency is innovation. As a company, Gore is capable of developing ____, that is, patterns of innovation over time that can create sustainable competitive advantage, in a number of different products and industries.

Accepted Answer

A)   technology cycles
B)   recalcitrant designs
C)   creative transitions
D)   innovation streams
E)   transitional designsF) B) and C)
G) A) and E) D

Question 12

Titleist has been manufacturing golf balls for several years, but each year it comes out with new golf ball designs. Titleist's development of the new Pro VI golf ball with a solid core designed to benefit players with high swing speeds is one example of how the manufacturer survives through ____.

Accepted Answer

A)   technological discontinuity
B)   discontinuous change
C)   dominant design
D)   incremental change
E)   technological continuityF) C) and E)
G) A) and E)

Question 13

Nearly all technology cycles follow the typical ____ pattern of innovation.

Accepted Answer

A)   W-curve
B)   U-curve
C)   bell-shaped
D)   S-curve
E)   V-shapedF) A) and B)
G) C) and E)

Question 14

Kodak is a company associated with photography. The company has recognized that digital photography is a threat to the future growth of the company. Therefore, the company has decided to become a market leader in digital imaging while still providing customer support for people still using film cameras. The existence of both technologies is an example of ____.

Accepted Answer

A)   design substitution
B)   modular management
C)   design competition
D)   hierarchical management
E)   a creative flowF) C) and E)
G) D) and E)

Question 15

A technology cycle occurs whenever there are major advances or changes in the ____ in a field or discipline.

Accepted Answer

A)   human, technical, and conceptual skills needed
B)   structure or personnel requirements
C)   internal resource environment
D)   knowledge, tools, and techniques
E)   way information is integratedF) None of the above
G) A) and B)

Question 16

Explain how the concept of innovation streams relates to the concept of sustainable competitive advantage. Give an example of how this occurs in the business world.

Accepted Answer

Organizations can create competitive advantage for themselves if they have a distinctive competence that allows them to make, do, or perform something better than their competitors. A competitive advantage becomes sustainable if other companies cannot duplicate the benefits obtained from that distinctive competence. Technological innovation is important for sustainable competitive advantage because it enables other companies not only to duplicate the benefits obtained from a company's distinctive advantage but also to quickly turn a company's competitive advantage into a competitive disadvantage.
While technological innovation can threaten a company's sustainable competitive advantage, the ability to create innovation streams can protect a company's sustainable competitive advantage because a stream of innovative ideas and products enables the company to stay one step ahead of the industry game. Innovation streams begin with technological discontinuities that create significant breakthroughs in performance or function. Technological discontinuities are followed by discontinuous change, in which customers purchase new technologies (technological substitution) and companies compete to establish the new dominant design (design competition). Dominant designs emerge because of critical mass, because they solve a practical problem, or because of the negotiations of independent standards bodies. Because technological innovation is both competence-enhancing and competence-destroying, companies that bet on the wrong design often struggle, while companies that bet on the eventual dominant design usually prosper. Emergence of a dominant design leads to a focus on incremental change, lowering costs, and small, but steady improvements in the dominant design. This focus continues until the next technological discontinuity occurs. Companies that keep an innovation stream going are often on the leading edge of this process and, therefore, able to sustain a competitive advantage.
Students may provide a variety of examples to illustrate the concepts of innovation streams resulting in sustainable competitive advantage. The text provides an example of Intel and the innovation stream associated with its microchips. Student examples should be evaluated based on the degree to which the examples actually illustrate the concepts and components of innovation streams and the degree to which students integrate the concepts into their explanations. In general, examples that come from outside the text demonstrate a higher level of learning than those simply repeating points made in the book.

Question 17

Which of the following approaches is aimed at changing large systems, small groups, or individuals?

Accepted Answer

A)   General Electric workout
B)   the functional approach to change
C)   organizational development
D)   results-driven change
E)   Lewin's change synthesisF) D) and E)
G) A) and E)

Question 18

Which of the following is a component of a creative work environment that encourages creativity?

Accepted Answer

A)   the development of challenging work
B)   organizational encouragement
C)   the granting of autonomy
D)   the removal of organizational impediments
E)   all of theseF) A) and E)
G) B) and E)

Question 19

Briefly describe the typical pattern of technology cycles that occurs during technological innovation.

Accepted Answer

Technology cycles typically follow an S-curve pattern of innovation. Early in the cycle, technological progress is slow and improvements in technological performance are small. However, as a technology matures, performance improves quickly. Finally, small improvements occur as the limits of a technology are reached. At this point, significant improvements in performance must come from new technologies.

Question 20

Explain the difference between activity-oriented and results-driven change. List the advantages of the results-driven approach to change. Characterize each of the approaches to organizational change presented in the text in terms of their apparent degree of emphasis on activities or results.

Accepted Answer

One of the reasons that organizational c...

Exam 7: Innovation and Change

The ____ approach to innovation assumes that innovation is occurring within a highly uncertain environment and that the key to fast product innovation is to use intuition, flexible options, and hands-on experience to reduce uncertainty and accelerate learning and understanding.

Correct Answer
verified

The same techniques for managing innovation work equally as well after technological discontinuities as during periods of incremental change.

Correct Answer
verified

Fully functional change occurs when incremental improvements are made to a dominant technological design. In a fully functional change, the improved version of the technology is fully backward compatible with the older version.

Correct Answer
verified

An innovation stream moves from one technology cycle to another through the process of ____.

Correct Answer
verified

Which of the following is NOT a part of the experiential approach to innovation?

Correct Answer
verified

When significant improvements in performance can ONLY be gained through radical new designs or new performance-enhancing materials, it is likely that a company is ____ in the S-curve pattern of innovation.

Correct Answer
verified

Which of the following is an organizational impediment to creativity in a work environment?

Correct Answer
verified

There are eight general steps for organizational development intervention. The first step is ____.

Correct Answer
verified

Which of the following statements describes an advantage of the results-driven change approach to managing change?

Correct Answer
verified

The typical S-curve pattern of innovation indicates that both early and late in the technology cycle, increased effort (i.e., money, research and development) brings only small improvements in technological performance.

Correct Answer
verified

Correct Answer
verified
D

Titleist has been manufacturing golf balls for several years, but each year it comes out with new golf ball designs. Titleist's development of the new Pro VI golf ball with a solid core designed to benefit players with high swing speeds is one example of how the manufacturer survives through ____.

Correct Answer
verified

Nearly all technology cycles follow the typical ____ pattern of innovation.

Correct Answer
verified

Correct Answer
verified

A technology cycle occurs whenever there are major advances or changes in the ____ in a field or discipline.

Correct Answer
verified

Explain how the concept of innovation streams relates to the concept of sustainable competitive advantage. Give an example of how this occurs in the business world.

Which of the following approaches is aimed at changing large systems, small groups, or individuals?

Correct Answer
verified

Which of the following is a component of a creative work environment that encourages creativity?

Correct Answer
verified

Briefly describe the typical pattern of technology cycles that occurs during technological innovation.

Explain the difference between activity-oriented and results-driven change. List the advantages of the results-driven approach to change. Characterize each of the approaches to organizational change presented in the text in terms of their apparent degree of emphasis on activities or results.

Correct Answer
verified
One of the reasons that organizational c...
View Answer

Exam 7: Innovation and Change

The ____ approach to innovation assumes that innovation is occurring within a highly uncertain environment and that the key to fast product innovation is to use intuition, flexible options, and hands-on experience to reduce uncertainty and accelerate learning and understanding.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The same techniques for managing innovation work equally as well after technological discontinuities as during periods of incremental change.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Fully functional change occurs when incremental improvements are made to a dominant technological design. In a fully functional change, the improved version of the technology is fully backward compatible with the older version.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

An innovation stream moves from one technology cycle to another through the process of ____.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following is NOT a part of the experiential approach to innovation?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

When significant improvements in performance can ONLY be gained through radical new designs or new performance-enhancing materials, it is likely that a company is ____ in the S-curve pattern of innovation.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following is an organizational impediment to creativity in a work environment?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

There are eight general steps for organizational development intervention. The first step is ____.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following statements describes an advantage of the results-driven change approach to managing change?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

The typical S-curve pattern of innovation indicates that both early and late in the technology cycle, increased effort (i.e., money, research and development) brings only small improvements in technological performance.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Correct AnswerverifiedD

Titleist has been manufacturing golf balls for several years, but each year it comes out with new golf ball designs. Titleist's development of the new Pro VI golf ball with a solid core designed to benefit players with high swing speeds is one example of how the manufacturer survives through ____.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Nearly all technology cycles follow the typical ____ pattern of innovation.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

A technology cycle occurs whenever there are major advances or changes in the ____ in a field or discipline.

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Explain how the concept of innovation streams relates to the concept of sustainable competitive advantage. Give an example of how this occurs in the business world.

Which of the following approaches is aimed at changing large systems, small groups, or individuals?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Which of the following is a component of a creative work environment that encourages creativity?

Correct AnswerverifiedShow Answer

Briefly describe the typical pattern of technology cycles that occurs during technological innovation.

Explain the difference between activity-oriented and results-driven change. List the advantages of the results-driven approach to change. Characterize each of the approaches to organizational change presented in the text in terms of their apparent degree of emphasis on activities or results.

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One of the reasons that organizational c...
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