Types of Innovation
Innovations can be roughly classified into three main types:
- Incremental innovations
- Radical innovations
- General purpose innovations
Innovations come in many shapes and sizes. Think of these three categories as small, medium and large.
Incremental Innovations are the small (perhaps 1-2% a year) improvements. These are described by the Learning curve, and by terms such as "learning by doing”. One example is the development of “creep capacity “ in the chemical industry. Another is Moore’s Law. (Graphic) Improvements here are continuous, and these represent one of the few areas in innovation where future improvements can be predicted with any confidence. They cause relatively little disruption.
Radical Innovations are the situations where a totally new technology comes along and displaces the incumbent technology. Examples are transistor replacing the vacuum tube, compact disc replacing long playing records. These changes are discontinuous, not continuous, and frequently cause significant disruption involving changes in industry leadership.
General Purpose Technologies is the name that has been coined to describe the really big innovations such as the waterwheel, steam power, electricity, the internal combustion engine, railways, the internet, etc. These innovations are share four characteristics:
- Wide scope for improvement and elaboration
- Wide range of uses
- Potential use in a wide range of products and processes
- Strongly complementary with other technologies
Technologies Evolve and Reach Limits | 
