ASSET PROFILES FOR TECHNOLOGICAL INNOVATION

This paper proposes a conceptual distinction between four generic categories of assets for technological innovation: 1) scientific research assets, 2) process innovative assets, 3) product innovative application assets, and 4) aesthetic design assets. Technological innovation may sometimes require the activation of only one asset type, but more often a specific constellation of more asset types has to be mobilized. The asset categories differ profoundly with respect not only to their respective competence bases but also with respect to their ''functional'' contribution to industrial innovation and mostly also to their organizational attachment. This way of conceiving technological innovation is opposed to the one-dimensional R&D conception that tends to view R&D as one functional asset along with others like manufacturing or marketing. It is argued that the different innovative assets are often located in different organizational settings within the corporation. The coupling between assets is discussed in terms of inter-asset specificity. We illustrate the great variation of innovative asset profiles across a wide spectrum of product categories. The concept of technological trajectories is reinterpreted in terms of asset profile oscillations and regroupings. Finally, the framework is related to recent efforts to formulate a resource-based theory of the firm, and the implications for innovation strategy is discussed.