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Product innovation is central to the success of most companies. The rewards of a successful innovation programme are highly visible in terms of sales, profits and growth. But not so apparent are the strategies that underlie these product innovation efforts. This monograph is about the ingredients of a winning new product strategy — about strategic decisions on markets, technologies, products — that result in a successful innovation programme.

With the growing climate problem, it has become a consensus to develop low-carbon technologies to reduce emissions. Electric industry is a major carbon-emitting industry, accounting for 35% of global carbon emissions. Universities, as an important patent application sector in China, promote their patent application and transformation to enhance Chinese technological innovation capability. This study aims to analyze low-carbon electricity technology transformation in Chinese universities.

This paper uses IncoPat to collect patent data. The trend of low-carbon electricity technology patent applications in Chinese universities, the status, patent technology distribution, patent transformation status and patent transformation path of valid patent is analyzed.

Low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities has been promoted, and the number of patents has shown rapid growth. Invention patents proportion is increasing, and the transformation has become increasingly active. Low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities is mainly concentrated in individual cooperative patent classification (CPC) classification numbers, and innovative technologies will be an important development for electric reduction.

This paper innovatively uses valid patents to study the development of low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities, and defines low-carbon technology patents by CPC patent classification system. A new attempt focuses on the development status and direction in low-carbon electricity technology in Chinese universities, and highlights the contribution of valid patents to patent value.

Constructing a low-carbon agriculture (LCA) park is considered an effective means to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in developing countries. This study aims to explore the effectiveness of integrated low-carbon agricultural technologies based on evidence from a pilot LCA experiment in Shanghai, China, from 2008 to 2011.

Integrated low-carbon technologies in an agricultural park were adopted to reduce GHG emissions. Reduced emissions and net economic benefits were calculated by comparing emissions before and after the implementation of the experiment.

Results show that the low-carbon agricultural park experiment markedly reduced GHG emissions. This outcome can be attributed to the integrated technologies adopted in the experiment, including the reuse and recycle of resources, control of environmental pollution and GHG emissions and improvement of economic efficiency and social benefit. All the technologies adopted are already available and mature, thus indicating the great potential of LCA to reduce GHG emissions despite the lack of advanced technologies. However, supporting policies may be necessary to motivate private interests in LCA because of the considerable starting investments.

Previous macro-level and policy studies on LCA are based on knowledge from experimental studies, which typically specify environmental conditions to explore solely the effects of one low-carbon technology. Practically, integrating several low-carbon technologies in one experiment may be more effective, particularly for extensive agriculture, in developing countries. The effectiveness of integrated technologies is insufficiently discussed in the literature. Therefore, this study explores how effective integrated feasible LCA technologies can be in terms of both emission reduction and economic benefits based on the data obtained from an experiment in Shanghai, China.

Frugal innovation is a term that has been used to describe the low-cost products and services, as well as the systems and processes adopted by organizations to develop them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the experience of multi-national companies (MNCs) in India as they adopt the philosophy of frugal innovation to develop products that are high in technology but low in terms of cost to meet the requirements of the market conditions in India, and similar low-income economies.

The case study methodology was adopted to understand the experiences of the Indian subsidiaries of two MNCs, Bosch India and 3M India. Data were acquired through interviews with key decision makers, documents, and publicly available information.

The two MNCs have increased research and development (R&D) in India and adopted the philosophy of frugal innovation which combines high technology with low costs. Based on the analysis, some propositions are presented indicating that MNCs will shift R&D to India if there are market opportunities; they will adopt the philosophy of frugal innovation to produce high technology products that are lost cost and low cost over product lifetime and will also expand to new-to-the-world innovation and finally contribute to global innovation.

The study is based on only two case studies and a large sample study may be required before the findings can be generalized.

Other MNCs can learn from Bosch India and 3M India in terms of adopting frugal innovation practices to be successful in low-income economies.

The field of frugal innovation is quite new and largely based on anecdotal accounts of successful low-cost innovation. This paper provides a more detailed account of the experiences of two well-known organizations to present propositions that may be used to conduct a large sample study.

While many low-income countries are signatories to the United Nations Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (CRPD), providing for the needs of students with disabilities in these countries is often difficult. Many governments in low-income countries experience difficulties in obtaining and supplying appropriate assistive devices and products to people in need; have issues with poor infrastructure and in general lack appropriate knowledge around the types of assistive technologies (ATs) available and how to use these to assist people with disabilities. The authors of this chapter will discuss the use of low-tech AT for students with disabilities in low-income countries, the benefits for inclusion and the difficulties involved. Reference to India will be used to explore the use of low-tech AT in a low-income country. Included in the chapter will be information on an innovative problem-based learning project implemented in six countries (five of which may be considered low-income countries), undertaken with preservice and in-service teachers.

The mainstream research on knowledge transfer and absorptive capacity (ACAP) in clusters was conducted in high-technology industries in developing countries. However, low technology intensity clusters present a different scenario that might affect this external knowledge transfer and ACAP. This study aims to understand the role of network relations and previous knowledge in the ACAP of a low-technology intensity cluster.

The authors analyzed companies from a low-technology industry in an emerging country. The authors collected 109 questionnaires from companies in the Brazilian footwear manufacturing cluster. Factor analysis led the independent variables to be regrouped into eight variables. This data set was analyzed using regression techniques.

In a low-tech cluster prevalently populated by small companies, companies have access to novelties and knowledge that influence their products and production through the frequency and stability of the network’s relational ties with the supplier. The quality of relationships with clients may provide access to products, materials, technologies and learning. Small companies consider intra-cluster competition because of limitations in accessing external competition. Although low-tech companies need to exchange knowledge and technology with suppliers and clients outside the cluster, most companies are limited in size because of liabilities. In a low-tech cluster dominated by small companies, access to better purchasing costs, new technologies or innovations is an expected weakness. Intra- and extra-cluster ties positively influenced ACAP, as did organizational capabilities, whereas employees’ skills did not.

Individual skills are not related to ACAP in low-technology intensity clusters. The level of ACAP in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) can be explained by the scope of individuals’ knowledge and other individual capabilities.

This paper empirically explored the influence of external and internal factors on technological and non-technological innovation of 5747 Indian firms. The study also explored novel insights about manufacturing firms by segregating them into high-technology and low-technology industries.

The study employed hierarchical regression analysis to analyse a cross-sectional dataset gathered from the World Bank enterprise survey. The firms are segregated into high-technology and low-technology industries based on the technology-intensity classification of the manufacturing industry given by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The main results highlight that technological and non-technological innovation was primarily driven by internal resources and capabilities rather than external factors. The authors found the highest effect of research and development spending on both forms of innovation. In both high-tech and low-tech industries, technology transfer is positively associated with technological innovation and negatively associated with non-technological innovation. Furthermore, external business support has substantially influenced non-technological innovation in low-tech industries.

This study used two-step hierarchical regression to explore the influence of external and internal factors on technological and non-technological innovation separately. Exploring determinants of innovation in high-technology and low-technology industries also brings the distinct prerequisites of enhancing innovation to the attention of policymakers and industry experts.

The purpose of this paper is to explore how low-technology corporate ventures use knowledge from multiple and often trans-sectoral fields to intensively create and deploy innovative production technologies in order to sustain significant competitive advantages.

The paper primarily draws evidence from an exploratory case study of a low-tech private enterprise operating in the wood processing industry in Greece.

Low-technology firms appear to invest mainly in process innovation and therefore production technologies, in order to secure a position within mature markets. Within the notion of knowledge-intensive entrepreneurship (KIE), a creative bricolage of knowledge based on research work and industrial practice results in innovative products and processes covering technologies from a wide range, including high-tech industries. The case indicates that low-tech companies may be something more than just “borrowers” of technology.

The limitations regard the single case study research design and the focus on the wood industry in Greece. Future research may pursue more case studies in different traditional sectors and national contexts.

Entrepreneurs and managers of low-technology firms should focus on technological innovation and more specifically on co-creation of novel production technologies in order to sustain strong competitive advantages and enhance performances.

The analysis challenges the established opinion of common entrepreneurial processes in low-tech sectors. It adds to the ongoing discussion of low-tech, KIE and it contributes to the literature of industrial dynamics since there are only a handful of studies that probe the role of production technologies within a low-tech but knowledge-intensive context.

Little conceptual and empirical effort has been directed toward differentiating high technology from low technology products, and identifying effective strategic alternatives for marketing technology‐based products. The purpose of this paper is to answer such fundamental questions as: what a high technology product is; what dimensions differentiate between high and low technology products and their marketing strategies; and what types of marketing strategies high technology companies should use. These issues are tackled from a contingency theory perspective with the assumption that marketing of high technology products, compared to that of low technology products, is influenced by different industry/market situations, and thus strategies should be designed and used differently. The paper reports the results from a survey of over 100 Australian firms, which examined the environment‐strategy‐performance link for low versus high technology‐based products. It discusses the implication of the results for marketers of high‐tech products.

In this paper, we examine the comparative advantage of Korea and China while focusing on their technology level. The three digit SITC (Standard International Trade Classification) data is classified by technology level and the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) is derived from 1992-2009 by using UN COMTRADE data. For careful interpretation of the comparative advantage and technology levels, we also examined intra-industry trade and unit values of bilateral Korea-China trade, and semi-conductor industry technology. We found that the revealed comparative advantage has moved from low technology products to high technology products in Korea. China still maintains a comparative advantage in low technology products such as textiles and clothing, but at the same time, China’s high and medium-high technology products have recently gained a comparative advantage. The perception that China only has a comparative advantage for labor intensive products with low technology should be changed based on our analysis. However, China’s advancement in technology should not be overestimated. When comparing the unit value of basic materials of Korea’s and China’s exports, we found that Korea’s export product prices are on average higher than that of China’s, although the gap is reducing. A wider technology gap between Korea and China still exists in the semi-conductor industry, which is one of the most advanced high technology industries throughout the world.