Technological innovation can be referred to any improvement in the present technology or an invention of any new technology. An innovation is the tool with the help of which technology mainly flourishes (Camisón and Villar-López 2014). Moreover, technology is an instrument provided by Science that enhances enormously it powers. The technological innovations are comprised of the newly developed products as well as processes or the technological transformations of those processes and products. If certain newly made product or service has been introduced to the market, then an innovation can be implemented. With the aid of the technological innovation, the world has been changed a lot (Baden-Fuller and Haefliger 2013). Globalization is the most important advantage of technological innovation. Moreover, cost effectiveness, communication as well as job opportunities are the other significant advantages of technological improvement. Moreover, technological innovation can also offer a number of important advantages and possible disadvantages for small business owners.
In this regard, this entire research study is aimed to be conducted based on the effectiveness of the technological innovation. Therefore, in order to execute the whole research, a technological innovation made on a product namely “Air Umbrella” has been considered for this study. Most importantly, this product has been selected as it is not manufacturer specific and is not widely available in market. The Air Umbrella mainly focuses on solving some of the most pervasively glaring of flaws of the design of umbrellas. Most importantly, this technologically innovative product is a real invisible umbrella that takes the benefit of flowing air as the shelter from the rain. By considering the pros and cons of any technological innovation, this study outlines the background and context of the planned use of Air Umbrella by covering all the relevant contextual issues associated with this innovation. This research also aims to conduct a critical analysis of the factors that would enable the innovation to succeed in future among its target audiences by illustrating the benefits and the shortcomings of this product. This research also aims to cover the usability, political, social, technological and organizational issues along with this innovation. Apart from that, this study also focuses on demonstrating a plan for success of this product implementation with the help of a formal analysis tool like SWOT analysis.
In the context of technological innovation, Air Umbrella has been selected in order to portray the significance of the technological innovation over product manufacturing. Umbrella is one of most popular and widely known device which is consisting of a circular canopy of cloth on a folding metal frame supported by a central rod and mainly utilized for protecting people from rain as well as sunlight (Kickstarter, 2017). On the other hand, the existence of air is everywhere in all around the earth. The flowing air can make a transformation over the moving path of the objects. Therefore, it can easily be stated that the faster the air moves, the greater the energy is. The jet airflow can also isolate few objects. Therefore, people can protect themselves from the rain drops while they make the utilization of the airflow. Thus, the airflow can generate an umbrella without any cover.
By considering this concept as well as the basic features and design of the umbrellas, various types of air umbrella have been designed with the cooperation of the postgraduates from Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics from July in 2012 to August in 2013 (Kickstarter, 2017). The Air umbrella can be referred to the technologically innovative product, which is a real invisible umbrella that takes the benefit of flowing air as the shelter from the rain. Air Umbrella is such a product that is powered by a force field, which utilizes this for replacing the fabric in a normal umbrella with the air flow deflecting the rain drops. The major aim of the Air Umbrella is to resolve some of the most pervasively glaring flaws of the design of umbrellas. After the production of this technologically innovative product, testing has also been done with the Air Umbrellas during the rainy days (Bleda and Del Rio 2013). However, one of the samples of this production has luckily achieved the objective of protecting one or even more people from the rain in the test performed in November 2012. Nevertheless, this product needs more improvements to be done on its designing and implementation sections. The top was big as the sample was designed for taking a large amount of air flow that did not achieve the portable characteristic.
As the stakeholders of this product are concerned, then it can be stated that the stakeholders of this product are same as the stakeholders of normal umbrellas. This is because; its basic feature is same with the normal umbrellas (Bergek et al. 2015). This product has huge target audiences including children, adults and aged people as well. Its advanced technologies would play a significant role in seeking the attention of numerous people.
After making an innovation for a popularly and widely known product, it is the most crucial step to undergo a thorough and complete analysis regarding how this innovation can be successful among people especially the target audiences of the product (Reichardt et al. 2016). Therefore, a proper analysis should properly cover the effect of all the factors those would enable a technologically innovation to succeed. Thus, these section covers thorough analyses regarding the factors, which can enable the innovation succeed among its target audience.
After releasing the first sample in November 2012, it was noticed that this product requires more improvements in regards to the technological innovations made on it (Kickstarter, 2017). The topmost portion of the product was big, which could not be able achieve the portable characteristics as the sample was designed for taking a large amount of airflow (Walrave and Raven 2016). Therefore, the inventors have finally improvised the product after the huge hard work of almost a year by improving the appearance of the umbrella that can affect the effect. Therefore, they have finished a new sample in July 2014 and colored the product for making it better-looking (Stephan et al. 2017). On the other hand, according to the different demands of several users, the inventors have designed two more kinds of umbrellas depending on an air-umbrella-b that is the air-umbrella-c and air-umbrella-a. Between these two categorizations, air umbrella-a has been designed for the female consumers as well as an air umbrella-c has been designed based on the scalable demand (Bossink 2015).
According to the benefits of the air umbrellas, it can be stated that this kind of new and innovative umbrellas are much more advantageous for the users than the normal or conventional umbrellas (Tu et al. 2016). Hence, in this regard, there is one huge advantage over the standard-issue umbrella along with the smaller size of these umbrellas which is the size of the air canopy can be enhanced by twisting the handle. On the other hand, meaning the coverage area could be potentially huge as well as comfortably cover two people under the shed of the an umbrella. Apart from that, Air Umbrella is a handy as well as light solution due to which these umbrellas are easy to carry (Gosens, Lu and Coenen 2015). Moreover, it is a rigorously tested as well as truly innovative product by a dedicated team of engineers who focuses more on the zero defects. Additionally, this technically innovative product could be attached to a bicycle by putting an end to the fierce of the fight of “Wind and Rain Vs Umbrella” (Lee et al. 2014). Furthermore, this kind of umbrella does not need to be dried miserably. In addition, there is not any kind of risk of finger pinching during desperately trying for closing or opening the normal or conventional umbrella.
Along with the advantages, Air Umbrella also has few significant drawbacks. The drawbacks or the shortcomings of Air Umbrella can be categorized into six components such as standardization, social, political, usability, and organizational issues.
Standardization Issues – Air Umbrella is not capable enough for maintaining the standardization aspects of a particular product designing with the help of applying innovative technologies (Anadon et al. 2016). Standardization is always associated with the implementation, publications and formulation of guidelines, specifications and rules for the repeated and common used focused at achieving optimum degree of uniformity or order in a provided field, discipline or context (Ghaffari et al. 2017). By performing a thorough testing over this product, it has been seen that the Air Umbrella has failed to compensate the shortcomings of the conventional as a continuous stream of fast moving air catches and blows the rain drops sideways while raining.
Social Issues – Due to technical difficulties, it would become very difficult for Air Umbrella to meet the demand of the common people who are the major target audiences of this product (Singh, Mathiassen and Mishra 2015). As the features of this product fail to satisfy the consumers and the cost of the product too high due to the advanced technological involvement within it, thus they would prefer to buy the normal or conventional umbrella. This is simply because of the fact that at the end of the day people always becomes more concerned about the pricing factors.
Usability – the usability of Air Umbrellas can become a big question for the users as this product is comprised of several technical difficulties. The battery life of the air umbrella seems to be very short for the needs of general people and the invisible umbrella can create wind shield that might soak the innocent bystanders (Dolfsma and Seo 2013). On the other hand, it might not be good enough for keeping dry if the wind is very strong. Moreover, there is also a question exists regarding the safety of the customers while using this product.
Political Issues – the political aspects and issues cast a potential shadow over both the outcome as well as process of development and launch of Air Umbrella (Filipescu et al. 2013).
Organizational Issues – The technological innovation through the development of Air Umbrella is comprised of several technical faults as discussed earlier (Karltorp, Guo and Sandén 2017). Therefore, according to organizational context, due to these issues, it would become difficult to convince people to buy it. Thus, it would become difficult for the innovators to generate revenue through this product.
In order to overcome the issues related to this technological innovation, it is essential to follow few significant success factors that can potentially enable this innovation of air Umbrella to succeed in future (Lee et al. 2013). According to the factors of a successful technological innovation, there are few factors should be properly followed by the innovators of Air Umbrella (Quitzow 2015). These are as follows:
Leadership Support – At the administrator as well as executive level, the technological innovation of air umbrella should be properly supported, that can help for fostering the culture of the campus where the innovation is encouraged (Graetz and Doud 2013). Therefore, it would strengthen the potential for the success of the technological innovation of Air Umbrella as a whole. An organizational willingness in terms of allowing few amounts of error and trial is required because all innovative efforts do not lead to the success (Cruz-Cázares, Bayona-Sáez and García-Marco 2013). On the other hand, the presence upper-level support provides the innovators of Air Umbrella the freedom for taking risks while pursuing the cutting-edge solutions for their campus as well as provides the innovators the latitude for experiment.
Stakeholder Involvement – Involvement of the students, staff as well as faculty can help for mapping the efforts of the technological innovation that is important to the technological direction over the college and university campus (Guo, Chen and Liu 2013). Communication is the basic element of the stakeholder involvement. Thus the innovators are searching always for the efficient ways for communicating their ideas.
Financial Support and resources – It is very crucial for the innovators for budgeting for Air Umbrella. Otherwise, the innovators of Air Umbrella would easily get caught drifting in the rapidly moving current with the little control of the destination (Jiaohui and Hong 2014). Thus, the innovators can’t take numerous chances in regards to the innovation as that can become expensive as well as have a significant effect over their budgets (Diéguez?Soto et al. 2016). Nevertheless, playing it very safe can put the innovators of Air Umbrella behind the curve as well as cause them for falling short of meeting the technological expectations.
Training – It is paramount in terms of sustaining the ongoing utilization as well as stimulating the future expansion of the technologies (De Massis, Frattini and Lichtenthaler 2013). Nevertheless, training tends to become diluted by the activities in regular basis of the campus community. Moreover, it is eroded further by the turnover of knowledgeable staff and faculty. The base for knowledge that has developed gradually can be depleted (Gosens, Lu and Coenen 2015). Apart from that, new opportunities for training can be realized through the new perspectives and infusion of new personnel they bring them.
After conducting the entire critical analysis regarding the advantages, disadvantages and success factors for this innovation, it can be seen that the number of factors for this project failure is more than the means of success of this project (Singh, Mathiassen and Mishra 2015). Hence, by portraying a five Ws (what who where why when) structure, it can be more clear.
What – The expense and loopholes have become the major aspects behind the failure of this technological innovation
Who –lack of focus on the innovation by the inventors as well as less support from the target audience and are liable for this scenario (Karltorp, Guo and Sandén 2017).
Where – This innovation has faced failure within its target market as the innovators have failed to accomplish the customer demand.
Why – Due to several loopholes present within the invention, such failure has been faced by the technological innovation of Air Umbrella (Cruz-Cázares, Bayona-Sáezn and García-Marco 2013).
When – Everything was going average, but when the pricing is set for the product, then it has been seen by the customers that they are not getting worthy product with respect to its high price (De Massis, Frattini and Lichtenthaler 2013). Then, the target customers for this product have more focused on buying the normal and conventional umbrella.
SWOT Analysis for Air Umbrella
Creativity as well as technological innovation is considered by several strategists as the key factor of the business prosperity and success. Hence, in this scenario, in order to evaluate the success and negative factors associated with this technological innovation of Air Umbrella, it is important to portray a proper SWOT analysis of Air Umbrella (Bleda and Del Rio 2013). SWOT Analysis is one of the methods that are utilized for evaluating strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats in the innovative strategies and ideas. SWOT analysis is combined of the internal analysis that incorporates the weakness as well as strength factors and the external analysis that incorporates the threats and opportunities (Gosens, Lu and Coenen 2015).
Strengths – As a technological innovation, the air umbrella has few significant strengths, these are as follows:
Weaknesses – Besides the strengths, Air Umbrella also has several weaknesses due to which this technological innovation can face several risks. These are as follows:
Opportunities – there are few opportunities for this product to become popular in its target market.
Threats – This product has several threats due to its significant weaknesses. These are as follows:
In order to be successful, the innovators of Air Umbrellas should follow few success criteria. Most important fact is that in order to be successful within the target market, this product has to be modified completely by eliminating all technical loopholes within the product (Singh, Mathiassen and Mishra 2015). Moreover, another important aspect for success criteria is that the pricing should carefully be set and the cost must be low for this product to gain customer attention and satisfaction in the pricing context. According to those criteria, the Air Umbrella innovators should set credible as well as compelling objectives for this technological innovation (Dolfsma and Seo 2013). On the other hand, the Air Umbrella innovation also has to make proper and suitable investment priorities. Apart from that, they should also create profitable and new approaches that can be capable enough for accomplishing the needs of the customers better than the competitors can. Moreover, they should also focus on improving the speed, shape as well as the size of the innovation portfolio. In addition, the Air Umbrella innovators should focus on proper scaling of the product by strengthening scaling, learning as well as testing skills. Most importantly, with the help of BothBrain Talent, the innovators of Air Umbrella can implement well-managed partnerships among creative people as well as business executives both outside and inside the company (Graetz and Doud 2013). They should effectively focus on developing new ideas on a regular basis in each aspect of the customer experience. Nurturing and prioritizing the ideas into the business concepts with the help of thorough idea development and screening are also significant success criteria that must be considered by the innovators. On the other side, there are twelve success factors those must be considered by while modifying this product which has been portrayed below:
|
Innovation Focus |
Objectives |
Success Factors |
|
Strategy |
Set credible, compelling objectives and priorities of investment |
ü Innovation strategies and goals ü Strategic alignment |
|
Idea development and generation |
Creating new profitable approaches that accomplish customer requirements (Bossink 2015). |
ü Idea generation ü Decision making, roles and structure ü Culture ü Idea development and screening ü Partnerships and management |
|
Portfolio Management |
Improving shape, size and speed of innovation portfolio |
ü Portfolio management ü Project Management |
|
Scaling |
Strengthening Scaling, learning and testing skills |
ü Launch and scaling strategy ü Feedback adaptation and loops |
After implementing the entire success plan for this technological innovation, it can be seen that the comparison factor between the success factors and failure has become in favor of this innovation. Hence, it can be more clear by portraying a five Ws (what who where why when) structure.
What – the low price for this product would be estimated and the loopholes would be properly eliminated.
Who – More focus on the innovation would be provided by the inventors to gain support from the target audience.
Where – the target market would be ready to avail the service of this product more due to the modification and new pricing
Why – Due to the implementation of the success plan, this technological innovation would be successful in future.
When – While all the success criteria would be accomplished then this technological innovation of Air umbrella would be successful.
Conclusion
After conducting the entire project report, it can easily be stated that the technological innovation of Air Umbrella is comprised of several loopholes and shortcomings due to which the consumers would suffer the most. Therefore, in this regard, this study has successfully depicted with a thorough analysis all the advantages as well as the disadvantages of this product. Moreover, this study has also portrayed the comparison between the success factors and the factors in the context of this innovation failure which ultimately illustrates the strong probability of the failure of Air Umbrella by analyzing the 5 Ws. Most importantly, this study has also established a proper success plan by following which the innovators of Air Umbrella can make modifications over the product and become success in the business ground.
In addition, this project report has clearly explored all the required as well as the essential success factors which must be incorporated within the product innovation. On the other side, at the end, this study has also effectively shown the success vs. failure for innovation about this product where the probability of getting success for this product has become high by adopting the success plan by the Air Umbrella innovators. Therefore, with the help of the success vs. failure proportion portrayed in two places that is after the critical analysis section and the success plan has clearly portrayed a significant differentiation. For the first proportion, the probability of failure was higher than that of the success. However, the implementation of the success plan has changed the scenario for the technological innovation of Air Umbrella. The positive direction and avenue have been opened up for the Air Umbrella innovation to be successful among the target audiences within its target market.
As the technological innovation of Air Umbrella is comprised of several issues as well as loopholes, the innovators should follow few significant recommendations those can be implemented based on the entire analysis made in this project report. These are as follows:
Improvising and modifying the product to overcome its weaknesses – In order to over the weaknesses as well as loopholes of Air Umbrella, it is important to the innovators for focusing on do huge hard work. They should incorporate and utilize all the effective techniques in terms of improvising the product so that people would intend to buy the product. Therefore, the development of new ideas should be effectively focused more on a regular basis in each customer experience aspect.
Implementing proper pricing strategy – As this technological innovation of air umbrella is completely new in market and is not widely available to people, so its price should not be high. Thus, Nurturing and prioritizing the ideas into the concepts of business by idea development and screening are also significant success criteria that should be considered by the innovators. Due to setting low price for this product, the customers would more like to try this product, which would ultimately enhance the number of sales of this product and generate revenue.
Properly following the success plan and success criteria – The innovators of Air Umbrellas should follow the success criteria portrayed in this study in terms of becoming successful within its target market. Therefore, the innovators should focus more on the strategy, idea development as well as generation, portfolio management and scaling of this product. Within these aims, there are twelve success factors suitable for this technological innovation, which must be effectively established by the innovators of Air Umbrella.
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