Technological Emergence Pathways: From Concepts to Markets

As a part of STI governance, studies on technology and innovation are critical in order to successfully manage research and development of products or services of the future. Technology emergence and diffusion affects the growth and potential perspectives of industries, businesses and societies. New innovations, as well as technologies, create new markets and change existing ones in incremental or radical way. It is crucial to define the technology emergence pathways from the concept ideas to the market realization. This study is aimed to determine the optimal model of technology emergence by combining fundamental theories on innovation and diffusion with modern environment. Particularly focusing on Global Positioning System as a core technology in empirical case study and interviews with experts in this industry, the thesis confirms realistic propositions of the model developed based on extensive literature review of classic theories in this field. The objectives of this study were achieved by examining the technology emergence pathways from market pull and technology push models of linear innovation diffusion and degree of technology innovativeness, e.g. radical or incremental. All core theories of innovation diffusion were significantly researched at the theoretical part of this thesis. Furthermore, empirical results include analysis of present GPS technology position in the timeline of innovation lifecycle identifying industries that have been significantly affected by the introduction of the navigation technology. Initially created for military purposes only, the GPS technology spreads across the markets and sectors worldwide, creating and motivating other technologies to be constantly improved in order to develop new GPS applications every day.