3031 : Innovation And Entrepreneurship Assessment Answers

Innovation can be described as the implementation/application of new ideas and characteristics to products, production processes, and organization and marketing strategies with an intention of impacting positively on the business (Mah, Ali, & Zawawi, 2016). Innovation can be classified as process innovation, products innovation, organization, behavioral and market innovation (Mah, Ali, & Zawawi, 2016). The main attributes of an innovation that are considered include the nature, type, context, means and the main aim of that innovation (Bareghe, Rowley, & Sambrook, 2009). Some of the benefits of innovation to businesses include, accessing new markets, boosting of production rates and enhancement of collaborative partnerships. Likewise, entrepreneurship has positive impacts on the economic development of organizations (Quian & Haynes, 2014). Innovation is not only beneficial in ensuring competitive advantage of organizations but it also ensures survival for many industries (Katherine & Sorra, 2001). In order for companies and organizations to grow, it is dependent on their capability to adapt innovation continuously (Miika & Littunen, 2010). A critical ingredient in the innovation process is knowledge generation or rather a combination of existing knowledge that is commonly referred to as ‘entrepreneurial habits. This has led to adoption of innovations which include “lean manufacturing”, “total quality management” and “Business Process Reengineering.”

The effectiveness in implementation of innovation is determined by factors such as management support, financial resources availability, climate of implementation and policies and practices implementation such as benchmarking and training (Robertson, Sorbello, & Unsworth, 2008) according to the theory of innovation implementation (Katherine & Sorra, 2001). Nevertheless, not all innovation is successful with reports that 40% -70% of failure (Burnes, 2003). However, this failure is not always attributed to the innovation itself rather than failure to implement (Klein & Night, 2005). In order to minimize this failure of innovation, the agencies of technology diffusion are applied which include provision of financial subsidies, risks absorption, training provision opportunities and education.

The proposed Innovation

One innovation that I would implement is an eco-friendly anaerobic digester. This innovation makes gas for cooking and fertilizer using organic waste. It works by feeding foodstuff remains, waste and manure to the digester. The system then breaks the organic materials using the micro-organisms therein in the absence of oxygen. The biodigester has the ability to hold over 5 liters of waste food materials and over 15 liters of manure every day. It is estimated that a liter of food is able to produce over 200 gas liters. This gas is enough to cook for a whole hour. The system can provide three hours of cooking gas which is equivalent to three meals that most families are used to. Additionally, it can produce 15 liters of organic fertilizer that can be used in farming. The excess gas that is produced can be stored in an in-built gas cylinder which has the ability to store 400 gas liters.

Opportunities and Problems that this innovation exploits

The core function of any innovation is to utilize an opportunity that exists to gain competitive advantage over other companies selling the same products. This anaerobic digester seeks to exploit the eco-friendly opportunity that exists in the energy industry. Specifically, the company targets the enlightened population that understands the benefits of conserving the environment by reducing the use of non-renewable energy resources. The bio-digester uses locally available materials and is therefore much cheaper than the cooking gas available in the market. The materials used are environmentally friendly and the products such as gas and fertilizer are not also harmful to the environment. 

Commercial Benefits of the Innovation

The innovation has multiple benefits to the company. First and foremost, the technology is homemade and therefore does not require space renting. Secondly, it is a cheaper alternative of energy because it consumes locally available materials such as food scraps and manure from pets. The technology is also easy to use and safety is guaranteed. Additionally, the world is turning into environmental friendly technology and therefore the biodigester will have a competitive advantage compared to other energy producing companies.

References

Bareghe, A., Rowley, J., & Sambrook, S. (2009). Towards a multidisciplinary definition of innovation. Management Decision , 1323-1339.

Burnes, B. (2003). Managing change and changing managers from ABC to XYZ. Journal of Management Development , 627-642.

Katherine, K. J., & Sorra, J. (2001). Implementing computerized technology: An organizational analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology , 811-824.

Klein, K. J., & Night, A. P. (2005). Innovation implementation: Overcoming the challenge. Current direction in Psychological Science , 243-246.

Mah, W. L., Ali, N. A., & Zawawi, D. (2016). SOURCES OF INNOVATION AND ITS IMPACTS ON FIRM PERFOMANCE:A FRAMEWORK EXPLORING INNOVATION AS MEDIATOR FOR THE CASE OF MALAYSIAN SMEs. Journal of Global Business and Social Enterpreneurship , 183-192.

Miika, V., & Littunen, H. (2010). Types of innovation, sources of Information and perfomance in enterpreneurial SMEs. European Journal of Innovation Management , 128-154.

Quian, H., & Haynes, K. (2014). Beyond Innovation: the small Business Innovation Research program as enterpreneurship policy. The Journal of Technology , 524-543.

Robertson, J., Sorbello, T., & Unsworth, K. (2008). Innovation Implementation: the role of technology diffusion agencies. Journal of Technology, Management and Innovation , 1-10.

The World Bank. (2018). Innovation and Enterpreneurship. Retrieved August 23, 2018, from https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/innovation-entrepreneurship.