Academic Articles

Academic Article: Evidence on Innovation Failures in Manufacturing Industries

            In the article, “Evidence on Innovation Failures in Manufacturing Industries,” two students from Laval University, Rejean Landry and Nabil Amara and one student from American University, Nizar Becheikh asked themselves three questions to try to broaden their understanding why businesses have innovation failures. The article states the three questions they asked were, “What are the factors that lead innovation projects to termination?, What is the impact of the degree of novelty of product innovation on the termination of innovation projects?, And are there differences in the factors explaining the innovation projects that succeed and those that are terminated by managers?” (Amara, Becheikh, and Landry 1) They found that many factors that lead to innovation failures, also led to innovation successes. It takes a lot to fully see through a new product innovation and many products get cut off in the early stages due to the cost of manufacturing, new marketing techniques that may be needed to promote the new product, and there may need to be new manufacturing techniques to be developed for this certain product. In the article the authors discuss how important it is for a company to perform research and development fully on a product before beginning the innovation process. This will help lower the number of failures in the industry. (Amara, Becheikh, and Landry 1) “In this paper, we hypothesize that firms attempt to reduce failures in their innovation projects by investing in seven categories of strategies: market development strategies, development of custom-designed products (goods or services) for clients, active involvement in developing new industry-wide standards, implementing new information and communications technologies, variety of methods used to protect intellectual property of the firm, active involvement in the export of products (goods or services) sold outside the country, active participation with other firms or organizations in innovation activities.” (Amara, Becheikh, and Landry 6) One way to try to avoid innovation failures is to try and get government funding for the product. If you have more than one way of funding, the product is more likely to succeed through the innovation process. In conclusion, in order for the innovation to turn into an actual product and not become a failure, alternate funding is needed along with through research and demand on the product. I have found that you can create a product but without a demand for it, it is ultimately a failure. 

Amara, Nabil, Nizar Becheikh, and Rejean Landry. "EVIDENCE ON INNOVATION FAILURES IN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRIES." INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS STRATEGY,. 12. (2012): 21. Web. 22 Jul. 2012. <http://libproxy.uhcl.edu:2057/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=9344c271-4dbf-4f96-b74b-9498464b26d7@sessionmgr111&vid=8&hid=123>.