Authors:

Corin Tuinstra

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About Paper:

Prosperous societies are built upon major innovations that drastically change how we live. These innovations, termed enabling innovations, have broad impact and cascading benefit for society. However, the trajectory to discovering an enabling innovation is not simple. Previous studies have discovered two paths for achieving the vision of an enabling innovation. The first, called a "moonshot" strategy, uses small tests and incremental advances to reach a goal within a single application context. The second, called a "lily pad" path, pursues multiple applications and contexts to retain interest, gather resources, advance performance, and generate impact. This study used patent citation analysis to demonstrate that using the "lily pad" path generates more impact, quicker than the "moonshot" approach. We hypothesized high-impact patents had a shorter path from vision to impact, if not limited to a single application context. Analysis of backward and forward patent citations suggests that high-impact innovations are benefited from an evolution across multiple application contexts. These findings suggest innovators should use novel application spaces to shorten the time from vision to application. As societies pursue major innovations, they should consider a "lily pad" approach to realize quicker positive impact.

Source:

Purdue University / 2023

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Co-authors:

Corin Tuinstra