novations in product fields associated with 

 chemicals appear to have declined somewhat 

 since the 1950's. 



Another set of technological innovations was 

 used in developing an additional indicator for 

 this report. ■»» This set consisted of "IR-100" 

 award winners, one hundred of which are 

 selected annually by the Editorial Advisory 

 Board of Industrial Research magazine. The awards, 

 begun in 1963, identify significant technological 

 advances and recognize innovators and organ- 

 izations responsible for such developments. The 

 innovations are selected on the basis of their 

 importance, uniqueness, and usefulness from a 

 technical standpoint. They are chosen, in 

 general, from advances in technology which 

 have particular interest for the industrial 

 research community; for this reason, the 

 innovations tend to concentrate in areas such as 

 scientific instruments, electronic apparatus, and 

 new industrial materials. The innovations, 

 therefore, represent a somewhat limited seg- 

 ment of the total U.S. innovation activity, and do 

 not reflect market success nor economic impact. 



Each of the more than 1,200 "IR-100" award- 

 winning innovations chosen over the 1963-74 

 period was classified according to the SIC 

 designation of the industry of origin and 

 grouped in terms of its industry's R&D intensi- 

 ty. c5ver 75 percent of the innovations were 

 found to originate in industries included in the 

 three groups of R&D-intensive industries. (The 

 remainder originated primarily in nonmanufac- 

 turing industries, academic institutions, or U.S. 

 Government agencies.) As shown in figure 4-18, 

 the most R&D-intensive industries (those of 

 Group I) were responsible for the largest share 

 of innovations over the twelve year period, 

 accounting for about 62 percent of all the "IR- 

 100" awards. Industries in Group II claimed 

 approximately 10 percent and Group III in- 

 dustries some 4 percent of the total innovations. 

 The preponderance of innovations in Group I 

 results primarily from the large number of 

 innovations originating in the electrical equip- 

 ment and communications industry and the 

 professional and scientific instruments industry. 

 Together, these two industries accounted for 

 over 45 percent of all the "IR-100" awards given 

 over the twelve year period. 



Figure 4-18 



"IR-100" award-winning innovations', by 



groups of R&D-intensive industries, 



1963-74 



(Percent of Total Awards) 

 100 



"» Indicators of the Output of New Technological Products from 

 Industry. Battelle Columbus Laboratories, 1975. (A study 

 commissioned specifically for this report). 



1963 



1 Industrial Research magaiine's annual awards for the 100 "most significant 

 new technological products of the year." 



SOURCE: Battelle Columbus laboratories. 



Time between invention and innovation. The 



innovation process — extending from the "first 

 conception" of the innovation to "first 

 realization"— may cover a long period of time. 

 This interval may be necessary, among other 

 things, to conduct research, determine the 

 technical feasibility of the potential innovation, 

 design and test engineering prototypes, develop 

 the required manufacturing capability, and 

 perform market analyses. The period is difficult 

 to define precisely, since invention and innova- 

 tion usually occur as stages in the process, rather 

 than as discrete events. Roughly, invention 

 occurs when initial determination of the 

 technical feasibility of a new idea is made, while 

 innovation corresponds to the actual commercial 

 development and marketing of the new product 

 or process. The invention-innovation intervals 

 are approximate, and are usually not strictly 

 comparable from one study to the next. 



104 



