In the spirit of "A picture says more than a thousand words", I feel the need to come up with a graphical depiction of the innovation landscape; to recap some of the earlier ideas, to develop them further, and to cover new ground. Let's have a look.
Recently, I've presented ideas about the innovation landscape, the protagonists, and their interactions that range from competition to cooperation. Taken together, these ideas describe all elements of an innovation system and its context: a system that produces and delivers the innovation that is needed, to those that need it, when they need it. Well, kind of ...
Previously, I discussed the characteristic roles of three innovation protagonists: societies, organisations, and entrepreneurs. Each have their strengths and weaknesses, and all of them interact with one another. But how do those interactions work? More like competition? More like cooperation?
Cardwell's Law takes a bird's eye view on competition in innovation. Though well supported by historic evidence, it only addresses the symptoms, but not the underlying reasons why a society actually engages in such competition. Time to take second look.
So far, I have viewed the innovation landscape through the lens of a single society and what happens inside it. However, there are many regional and even local societies, with partial overlaps, some commonalities and many differences. today, I’ll have an initial glance at competition in the innovation landscape.
understanding innovation 