Corporate Research Laboratories and the History of Innovation

Corporate Research Laboratories and the History of Innovation PDF Author: David Pithan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000410307
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
With the beginning of the twentieth century, American corporations in the chemical and electrical industries began establishing industrial research laboratories. Some went on to become world-famous not only for their scientific and technological breakthroughs but also for the new union of science and industry they represented. Innovative ideas do not simply appear out of the blue and spread on their own merit. Rather, the laboratory's diffusion takes place in a cultural context that goes beyond corporate capital and technological change. Using discourse analysis as a method to comprehensively capture the organizational field of the early American R&D laboratories from 1870 to 1930, this book uncovers the collective meanings associated with the industrial laboratory. Meanings such as what and where a laboratory is supposed to be, who the scientist is, and what it means to practice science provided cultural resources that made the transfer of the laboratory from academic science into an industrial setting possible by rendering such meanings understandable and operable to big business and organizational entrepreneurs fighting for hegemony in a rapidly evolving market. It analyzes not only the corporations that established laboratories in the United States but also their contexts – economic, political, and especially scientific – showing how "the industrial laboratory" was transformed from an organizational novelty into an expected institution in less than two decades. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, historians, and students in the fields of organizational change, discourse studies, the management of technology and innovation, as well as business and management history.

Corporate Research Laboratories and the History of Innovation

Corporate Research Laboratories and the History of Innovation PDF Author: David Pithan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000410307
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 186

Get Book Here

Book Description
With the beginning of the twentieth century, American corporations in the chemical and electrical industries began establishing industrial research laboratories. Some went on to become world-famous not only for their scientific and technological breakthroughs but also for the new union of science and industry they represented. Innovative ideas do not simply appear out of the blue and spread on their own merit. Rather, the laboratory's diffusion takes place in a cultural context that goes beyond corporate capital and technological change. Using discourse analysis as a method to comprehensively capture the organizational field of the early American R&D laboratories from 1870 to 1930, this book uncovers the collective meanings associated with the industrial laboratory. Meanings such as what and where a laboratory is supposed to be, who the scientist is, and what it means to practice science provided cultural resources that made the transfer of the laboratory from academic science into an industrial setting possible by rendering such meanings understandable and operable to big business and organizational entrepreneurs fighting for hegemony in a rapidly evolving market. It analyzes not only the corporations that established laboratories in the United States but also their contexts – economic, political, and especially scientific – showing how "the industrial laboratory" was transformed from an organizational novelty into an expected institution in less than two decades. This book will be of interest to researchers, academics, historians, and students in the fields of organizational change, discourse studies, the management of technology and innovation, as well as business and management history.

The Idea Factory

The Idea Factory PDF Author: Jon Gertner
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101561084
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 434

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Book Description
The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologies “Filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons . . . The Idea Factory explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation?” —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review “Compelling . . . Gertner's book offers fascinating evidence for those seeking to understand how a society should best invest its research resources.” —The Wall Street Journal From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.

The Dawn of Innovation

The Dawn of Innovation PDF Author: Charles R. Morris
Publisher:
ISBN: 1586488287
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 385

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Book Description
From the bestselling author of The Trillion Dollar Meltdown and The Tycoons comes the fascinating, panoramic story of the rise of American industry between the War of 1812 and the Civil War

Edison and the Business of Innovation

Edison and the Business of Innovation PDF Author: André Millard
Publisher: Johns Hopkins University Press
ISBN: 9780801847301
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
This is the story of the "other" Thomas Edison—not the heroic lone inventor, but Edison the businessman, industrialist, and successful manager of one of the world's largest industrial research laboratories. Tracing his career from his boyhood to his death in 1931, Edison and the Business of Innovation reveals Edison to be an entrepreneur of extraordinary vision. From extensive research in the Edison archives at West Orange, New Jersey, Andre Millard presents new information about Edison the businessman and provides new interpretations of old issues.

A Century of Innovation

A Century of Innovation PDF Author: 3M Company
Publisher: 3m Company
ISBN:
Category : 3M Company
Languages : en
Pages : 246

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Book Description
A compilation of 3M voices, memories, facts and experiences from the company's first 100 years.

Science and Corporate Strategy

Science and Corporate Strategy PDF Author: David A. Hounshell
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521327671
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 776

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive, critical study of research and development in a large US corporation.

The Architecture of Innovation

The Architecture of Innovation PDF Author: Joshua Lerner
Publisher: Harvard Business Press
ISBN: 1422143635
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 226

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Book Description
In 'The Architecture of Innovation', Josh Lerner explores what lies behind successful innovation, and what managers and companies can learn from successful and unsuccessful cases. He combines both analysis of in-house innovation in corporate research labs with finance-based venture capital investment in innovation.

The Social Labs Revolution

The Social Labs Revolution PDF Author: Zaid Hassan
Publisher: Berrett-Koehler Publishers
ISBN: 1626560757
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 200

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Book Description
Current responses to our most pressing societal challenges—from poverty to ethnic conflict to climate change—are not working. These problems are incredibly dynamic and complex, involving an ever-shifting array of factors, actors, and circumstances. They demand a highly fluid and adaptive approach, yet we address them by devising fixed, long-term plans. Social labs, says Zaid Hassan, are a dramatically more effective response. Social labs bring together a diverse a group of stakeholders—not to create yet another five-year plan but to develop a portfolio of prototype solutions, test those solutions in the real world, use the data to further refine them, and test them again. Hassan builds on a decade of experience—as well as drawing from cutting-edge research in complexity science, networking theory, and sociology—to explain the core principles and daily functioning of social labs, using examples of pioneering labs from around the world. He offers a new generation of problem solvers an effective, practical, and exciting new vision and guide.

Cycles of Invention and Discovery

Cycles of Invention and Discovery PDF Author: Venkatesh Narayanamurti
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 0674967968
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 177

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Book Description
Using Nobel Prize–winning examples like the transistor, laser, and magnetic resonance imaging, Venky Narayanamurti and Tolu Odumosu explore the daily micro-practices of research and show that distinctions between the search for knowledge and creative problem solving break down when one pays attention to how pathbreaking research actually happens.

Innovating in the Open Lab

Innovating in the Open Lab PDF Author: Albrecht Fritzsche
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
ISBN: 3110633663
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 326

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Book Description
Open labs provide spaces for interaction across organizational boundaries. They create a huge potential to advance innovation processes. Making use of this potential, however, is not an easy task. It requires diligence, sophistication and perseverance from everyone involved in the implementation and the management of the lab. This book brings together contributions from leading experts in engineering, design, strategy, foresight and marketing research as well as policy makers and practitioners from an open lab. It explores from different perspectives how open labs can be used to facilitate innovation and what needs to be done to make the operation of an open lab successful. The topics addressed in the book include: interaction patterns and mediation in open labs, innovation technology, resource management, ecosystem and platform design, cultural translation, productivity, multi-channel communication, and more. The first part of the book is dedicated to the study of JOSEPHS®, an open lab in Germany. It gives insight in the practical challenges of running an open lab and its role in the local business ecosystem. The other parts of the book discuss the phenomenon of open labs in general and its significance in different contexts all around the world.