Question 1

A technology's S-curve of performance improvement is unrelated to its S-curve of diffusion.

Accepted Answer

The S-curve of performance improvement is usually related to the S-curve of diffusion since as a technology's performance improves, more people are likely to use it, causing greater diffusion.

Question 2

The path a technology follows through time is termed its technology map.

Accepted Answer

The path a technology follows through time is typically referred to as its "technology trajectory," not "technology map."

Question 3

The first phase in the technology cycle is involves incremental improvements until one company finds a major breakthrough.

Accepted Answer

The first phase in the technology cycle is known as the "emergence phase," during which multiple companies and researchers are working on incremental improvements and innovations until one or more breakthroughs occur. Only after this phase can a dominant design and industry standards emerge, leading to more widespread adoption and the start of the growth phase.

Question 4

In the era of ferment,firms focus on efficiency and market penetration.

Accepted Answer

In the era of ferment, firms focus on experimentation and innovation to establish a dominant design, rather than efficiency and market penetration.

Question 5

Technologies always get the opportunity to reach their performance limits before being replaced by a new technology.

Accepted Answer

This statement is false. Technologies can be replaced before reaching their performance limits due to various factors such as obsolescence, competition, and innovation.

Question 6

When personal data assistants (PDAs)were first introduced there was a time when there was great uncertainty about this technology and its market.This is called the fluid phase of the technological cycle according to Utterback and Abernathy.

Accepted Answer

According to the statement, there was uncertainty about the technology and market of PDAs when they were first introduced, which is characteristic of the fluid phase of the technological cycle according to Utterback and Abernathy.

Question 7

Managers can almost always use the S-curve model to effectively plan their technology investment decisions.

Accepted Answer

The S-curve model is a useful tool for understanding technology adoption and growth, but it may not always account for all variables or disruptions in the market, making it less effective in certain situations.

Question 8

A firm can influence the shape of the S-curve by revamping the architecture design of the technology.

Accepted Answer

By changing the architecture design, a firm can alter the performance of the technology and potentially shift the point of adoption, leading to a different S-curve shape. Therefore, the statement is true.

Question 9

The adoption of new technology and the diffusion of information about it takes place at the same rate.

Accepted Answer

The adoption of new technology and the diffusion of information about it do not necessarily happen at the same rate. The diffusion of information about new technology can happen faster or slower than the adoption of the technology itself. Some people may become aware of new technology but choose not to adopt it, while others may adopt it without having full information about it. Additionally, some technologies may have regulatory or financial barriers that slow down their adoption even if information is widely available.

Question 10

The radicalness of an innovation is absolute.

Accepted Answer

The radicalness of an innovation is relative, not absolute. It depends on the degree of departure from existing technologies or ways of doing things. What may be considered radical today may not be so in the future as people become accustomed to it.

Question 11

Product innovation can enable process innovation.

Accepted Answer

Product innovation can lead to the development of new processes or the improvement of existing processes that support the creation, production, and delivery of the new or improved product. By introducing new or improved products that require new or modified processes to produce or deliver, firms can drive process innovation internally or within their supply chain partners. Therefore, product innovation and process innovation are interconnected and can reinforce each other.

Question 12

As a firm's expertise becomes oriented around maximizing its ability to compete in the existing dominant design,it can become a barrier to the firm's recognizing and reacting to a new technology architecture.

Accepted Answer

When a firm's expertise is focused on maximizing its ability to compete in the existing dominant design, it tends to become entrenched in its ways of doing things. This can make it difficult for the firm to recognize and react to new technological innovations that may require a different approach or set of skills. As a result, it may miss opportunities to adapt and innovate, which can lead to falling behind competitors who are able to adapt more quickly.

Question 13

The S-curve in technological improvement is a plot of performance against effort and money invested in that technology.

Accepted Answer

The S-curve in technological improvement is a graph that plots the performance of a technology against the amount of money or effort invested in it. As more resources are invested, performance improves until it reaches a saturation point where further investment produces diminishing returns. The resulting S-shaped curve is a common way to visualize the relationship between technology and investment.

Question 14

To develop the technology diffusion s- curve,you need to plot the cumulative number of adopters of the technology against time.

Accepted Answer

This is correct. The technology diffusion s-curve is developed by plotting the cumulative number of adopters of a technology against time. This curve helps to visualize the process of how a new technology is adopted and diffused over time.

Question 15

Innovators represent the largest category of adopters according to research.

Accepted Answer

Innovators are the smallest category of adopters, representing only 2.5% of the population, according to the Diffusion of Innovations theory by Everett Rogers. The largest category is the early majority, representing 34% of the population.

Question 16

Until a new technology has established a degree of legitimacy,it may be difficult to attract other researchers to participate in its development.

Accepted Answer

Other researchers are likely to be hesitant to invest time and resources into a new technology until it has been proven to be effective and has gained credibility within the scientific community.

Question 17

Many companies are now coming up with better ways to make personal data assistants (PDAs)perform their functions better.This is the specific phase of the technological cycle according to Utterback and Abernathy.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. The development of better ways to make PDAs perform their functions better is an example of the improvement phase of the technological cycle, which is characterized by incremental improvements to existing technologies.

Question 18

"Moore's Law" refers to the rapidly increasing density of transistors on integrated circuits that enabled microprocessor performance to increase dramatically.This increase in density is expected to always continue at the same rate.

Accepted Answer

Moore's Law is not a physical or natural law, but rather an observation made by Gordon Moore in 1965, who predicted that the number of transistors on a microchip would double approximately every two years. However, as technology advances, it becomes increasingly difficult and expensive to continue this rate of increase in density. In recent years, Moore's Law has slowed down and some experts predict it may eventually come to an end.

Question 19

In order to initiate a component innovation,a firm requires knowledge about the way components link and integrate to form the whole system.

Accepted Answer

The answer of In order to initiate a component innovation,a...

Question 20

Radical innovation entails changing the overall design of the system or the way that components interact with each other.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Radical innovation entails changing the overall design...

Quiz 3: Types and Patterns of Innovation