The Balance of Novelty and Similarities

The article “When Innovations Meet Institutions: Edison and the Design of Electric Light” by Hargadon and Douglas analyses how Edison successfully introduced and commercialized the electric lighting system within the resistant social context. One method he used is to apply robust design, which the authors believe as a useful tool of helping Edison’s innovation to acquire social acceptance and break lock-in of gas lighting institutes. The notion of robust design requires the innovators and entrepreneurs to make sophisticated decisions including what to present as new (novelty), what to present as old (similarity), and what to hide (Hargadon and Douglas 2001, 476--501).

Both recent researches and the above article emphasize the necessity of shaping the innovation itself with a purpose of meeting the public’s preceding understanding, and therefore the innovation can better get accepted in the society. Many studies suggest that the customer should be the first priority, and technology itself is necessary but not sufficient (Herbig and Day 1992, 4--15). In reality, many entrepreneurs and firms follow this principle due to the simple logic: better understanding equals better spreading, and therefore, more successful. On the other hand, are there any negative effects of hiding novelty? What aspects need to be taken into consideration except evoking acceptance from public through presenting similarities? These questions will be discussed in this essay.

Innovation with few precedent values

One observable disadvantage of seeking similarities from antecedents is that, sometimes this process can be heavily twisted and biased if there are few precedent examples to follow. There are two side effects of this process: firstly, the relative advant...

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...he balance which is not negligible.

Today, many innovative firms and entrepreneurs put extensive attention on how to make the innovation comply with the marketing mechanism instead of thinking how to make the products more advantage and sophisticated. If innovators could focus more on issues like products development (effectiveness) and cost control (efficiency), they are likely to have a better competitive edge than the competitors. Today’s economy suggests that institutions as well as customers are more welcome to the novel ideas than before, if innovation was shaped and modified too much with the purpose of enriching social understanding and acceptance, the result may worsen. Therefore, it is very important for innovators and entrepreneurs to carefully think about the balance between acquiring acceptance within social context and presenting the novelty to public.