Title: Toward a revised theory of technology cycle for knowledge-based technologies: an empirical analysis of microprocessor, mobile cellular, and genome sequencing technologies

Authors: Yu Sang Chang

Addresses: Department of Management, Gachon Center of Convergence Research, Gachon University, 1342 Seongnamdaero, Sujeong-gu, Seongnam-si, Gyeonggi-do 461-701, Korea

Abstract: Does the innovation process of knowledge-based technologies differ from the process of industrial technologies? Do knowledge-based technologies need a new theory of technology cycle? These are the two key questions that are examined in this paper. First, the characteristics of radical innovation from a longitudinal study of knowledge-based technologies of genome sequencing, mobile cellular, and microprocessor are analysed. And then, the results are compared to the similar research findings reported earlier from industrial technologies such as glass and cement technologies. The role of radical innovation in knowledge-based technologies is discovered to have become so critical that it deserves a new designation of 'super' radical innovation. Consequently, a revised theory of technology cycle incorporating the concept of 'super' radical innovation for the knowledge-based technologies is presented.

Keywords: super radical innovation; technology cycle; dominant design; knowledge technologies; industrial technologies.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTPM.2019.101170

International Journal of Technology, Policy and Management, 2019 Vol.19 No.3, pp.261 - 288

Received: 05 Sep 2017
Accepted: 21 Feb 2018
Published online: 26 Jul 2019 *

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