Question 1

Fully functional change occurs when incremental improvements are made to a dominant technological design. In a fully functional change, the improved version of the technology is fully backward compatible with the older version.

Accepted Answer

Fully functional change typically involves significant advancements or alterations that may not ensure backward compatibility with older versions, as it often introduces new standards or systems that differ from the previous ones.

Question 2

Technological discontinuities are followed by discontinuous change, which is characterized by technological substitution and design competition.

Accepted Answer

Technological discontinuities, which refer to the emergence of new technologies that significantly improve or disrupt existing ones, often lead to discontinuous change. This type of change is characterized by technological substitution, where the new technology replaces the old one, and design competition, where different firms compete to create the dominant design for the new technology.

Question 3

Companies that want to sustain a competitive advantage must understand and protect themselves from the strategic threats of innovation.

Accepted Answer

Innovation can disrupt industries and change consumer preferences, making it a significant strategic threat to companies that do not embrace it or protect themselves from competing innovators. Therefore, companies that want to sustain a competitive advantage must understand and protect themselves from the strategic threats of innovation.

Question 4

Technological innovation not only makes it possible to duplicate the benefits obtained from a company's distinctive advantage but also quickly creates an opportunity to turn a company's competitive advantage into a competitive disadvantage.

Accepted Answer

Technological innovation can be easily replicated by competitors, making it possible for them to duplicate the benefits obtained from a company's distinctive advantage. This can turn a company's competitive advantage into a disadvantage as competitors catch up or surpass the company's technological capabilities.

Question 5

Innovation streams are patterns of innovation over time that can create sustainable competitive advantage.

Accepted Answer

Innovation streams are a series of innovation efforts that can create a sustainable competitive advantage over time, based on the pattern of innovation. This is because innovation streams allow a company to constantly improve and develop new products or services, keeping them ahead of their competitors.

Question 6

A creative work environment requires organizational encouragement and supervisory encouragement as well as work group encouragement.

Accepted Answer

A creative work environment cannot be created in isolation. It requires the support and encouragement of the organization, supervisors, and work group. All three play a critical role in fostering creativity and innovation in the workplace.

Question 7

Technology cycles for low-tech products follow the typical U-curve pattern cycle of innovation.

Accepted Answer

Technology cycles for low-tech products do not typically follow a U-curve pattern; this pattern is more associated with high-tech industries where initial high investment and innovation are followed by a period of optimization and then a new cycle of innovation. Low-tech products often have more stable and less cyclical innovation patterns.

Question 8

Declaring victory too soon is one of the mistakes managers often make in the refreezing stage of change.

Accepted Answer

This is true, as declaring victory too soon can lead to employees losing motivation and reverting back to old behaviors, undoing the progress that has been made. It is important for managers to continue to reinforce the changes and ensure that they are fully integrated into the company culture before celebrating success.

Question 9

Even though education and communication, participation, negotiation, top management support, and coercion can all be used to manage resistance to change, coercion should be used only in a crisis or as a last resort.

Accepted Answer

Coercion can create negative effects and damage relationships with employees, so it should only be used in exceptional circumstances when all other methods have failed. It is important to promote a culture of willingness to change through communication and participation, rather than relying on coercion to force compliance.

Question 10

The General Electric Workout is a special kind of activity-oriented change.

Accepted Answer

The answer of The General Electric Workout is a special...

Question 11

Results-driven change focuses primarily on changing company procedures, management philosophy, or employee behavior.

Accepted Answer

Results-driven change primarily targets achieving specific outcomes or goals, rather than focusing on changing procedures, philosophies, or behaviors, although these may be adjusted as part of the process to achieve the desired results.

Question 12

The typical S-curve pattern of innovation indicates that both early and late in the technology cycle, increased effort (i.e., money, research and development) brings only small improvements in technological performance.

Accepted Answer

The S-curve pattern of innovation shows that technological progress is slow in the beginning and end stages of the cycle, but rapid in the middle stage. Therefore, investing more resources at the beginning and end stages of the cycle may result in only marginal improvements in technological performance.

Question 13

Organizational innovation is defined as "doing things differently" inside an organization.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Organizational innovation is defined as "doing things...

Question 14

Milestones are formal review points that tend to lengthen the innovation process.

Accepted Answer

Milestones are used to monitor progress and make necessary adjustments, helping to keep the innovation process on track and potentially speeding it up by identifying and addressing issues early.

Question 15

What works well when managing innovation after technological discontinuities also works well when managing innovation during periods of incremental change.

Accepted Answer

Managing innovation after technological discontinuities often requires different strategies compared to periods of incremental change. After a technological discontinuity, firms might need to adopt more radical and exploratory approaches to innovation, focusing on new markets or technologies. During incremental change, firms often focus on refining and improving existing products and processes, which requires more exploitative strategies.

Question 16

Nearly all technology cycles follow a bell-shaped pattern of innovation.

Accepted Answer

The answer of Nearly all technology cycles follow a bell-shaped...

Question 17

An innovation stream begins with a technological discontinuity, which is a scientific advance or a unique combination of existing technologies creating a significant breakthrough in performance or function.

Accepted Answer

This statement is true. An innovation stream typically begins with a technological discontinuity that leads to a significant breakthrough in performance or function.

Question 18

According to Kurt Lewin, managing organizational change is a simple process that requires organizational dialogue, change intervention, and reformatting.

Accepted Answer

This statement is false. Kurt Lewin's model of managing organizational change involves three stages: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing. It is a more complex process that requires careful planning, implementation, and evaluation.

Question 19

Resistance to change usually results from organizational factors: such as the absence of promotion guidelines, bonuses, and praise.

Accepted Answer

Resistance to change can have multiple factors, including individual factors such as fear of the unknown, but it is not limited to organizational factors. Additionally, the absence of promotion guidelines, bonuses, and praise may contribute to dissatisfaction, but it does not necessarily result in resistance to change.

Question 20

A technology cycle begins with the birth of a new technology and ends when that technology reaches its limits and dies; it is then replaced by newer, substantially better technology.

Accepted Answer

This statement accurately describes the concept of a technology cycle.

Quiz 7: Innovation and Change