1.3 Classification of independent innovation
At present, there are many classification methods regarding independent innovation, which can be divided into four kinds: i) Based on the technological characteristics of innovation, independent innovation is divided into original innovation, integrated innovation, and re-innovation based on introduction, implementation, and adoption; ii) based on the characteristics of innovation activity, it is divided into conventional innovation and unconventional innovation; iii) based on the perspective of the technological breakthrough, it is divided into dominant breakthrough design innovation, core components innovation, and product architecture innovation; iv) open innovation, especially cooperative innovation, is often regarded as the important organization model of independent innovation.
1.3.1 Original innovation, integrated innovation, and re-innovation based on introduction, implementation, and adoption
The concept of independent innovation occurred domestically first in the 1990s. At that time, “independent innovation” was used as the opposite of technology introduction. Therefore, independent innovation was regarded as innovation based on one's own technology first; and, re-innovation based on the introduction, implementation, and adoption of the foreign technology was regarded as independent innovation as well. At the same time, innovation was divided into independent innovation and imitative innovation. While some scholars equated independent development with independent innovation, and regarded independent development of products with independent intellectual property as independent innovation. In recent years, people have gradually realized that the core of independent innovation is the formation of independent intellectual property. And further, both independent development and re-innovation based on introduction should be regarded as independent innovation, as long as they have formed all or part of the achievement of intellectual property. For example, in February 2005, the then Vice Minister of the Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr. Shang Yong, proposed that independent innovation should focus on: original innovation, integrated innovation, and re-innovation based on the introduction, implementation, and adoption of the foreign technology. In July 2005, during the plenary session of the leading national S&T group meeting, then Premier Wen Jiabao stressed that more attention should be paid to emphasizing and pushing independent innovation forward and to the improvement of our ability to achieve original innovation, integrated innovation, and re-innovation based on introduction, implementation, and adoption. The types of independent innovation were initially confirmed. Since then, people have agreed on a preliminary classification of independent innovation based on technological characteristics.
(1) Original innovation
When Professor Walz (1995) of the University of Mannheim in Germany analyzes economic growth, he emphasizes endogenous innovation and imitative innovation. Considering the basic meaning, he says that endogenous innovation is original innovation. He believes that endogenous innovation means that the R&D of key technology is carried out completely by the enterprises themselves, which forms independent intellectual property; endogenous innovation is the basic embodiment of an enterprise's independent innovation ability; the capability for endogenous innovation is the basis for the enterprise's cooperative innovation or re-innovation based on implementation and adoption. In other words, other innovative subjects tend to cooperate with the enterprise which creates technology accumulation and ability promotion through endogenous independent innovation. Thus, the enterprise will have the ability to complete re-innovation based on implementation and adoption of the technology that has been introduced.
(2) Integrated innovation
Integrated innovations, namely new products, are developed based on new technology which is formed through the organic integration of existing technology around specific market demand. A typical example is the photocopier. Before the photocopier appeared, all of the technologies it uses had already emerged, and they were very mature. The innovators of the photocopier just integrated all of the existing technologies, which formed the systematical technology of the copiers. Moreover, Shanghai Zhenhua Port Machinery applied the US GPS system to the container crane in 2000 and solved the problems of crane flaking and container management. A year later, the group applied for a patent on a global scale, and became the industrial leader in technology development. In addition, the Chinese Shenzhou manned spacecraft project is also a model of integrated innovation.
(3) Re-innovation based on introduction, implementation, and adoption
Re-innovation based on introduction, implementation, and adoption means first learning to use mature foreign technology after its introduction, followed by implementation and adoption, then improving and innovating it to some extent. Examples of this have been very common in China since the reform and opening up, especially in the fields of household electrical appliances and military equipment. For example, Haier and other household electrical appliance enterprises introduced foreign refrigerator technology and used it effectively, soon achieving significant improvement and innovation. Then Haier products have been selling well both domestically and abroad. Another example is in the military industry: China introduced new-generation warplane technology from Russia, first manufacturing, then improving. Then China produced the same type of fighter plane which is far better than the Russian fighter, and it has won over a part of the international market.
1.3.2 Conventional and unconventional independent innovation
As mentioned above, based on the characteristics of innovation activities, independent innovation can be divided into conventional and unconventional innovation. Conventional innovation occurs mainly in large and mature enterprises, while unconventional one mainly occurs in small entrepreneurial enterprises.
(1) Regular independent innovation of large and mature enterprises
Many large and mature enterprises have accumulated rich experience in independent innovation. These enterprises often regard independent innovation as normal conscious activities. Many large Chinese enterprises have formed the new paradigm of conventional independent innovation that has its own characteristics, such as Haier, Hisense, Huawei, and others. The conventional independent innovation of large enterprises has the following characteristics: The first is internalization of technology sources. They build a central research institute inside the enterprise in order to make the R&D process internal, manageable and controllable. The second is the functionalization of creative activity. The entrepreneur's contribution to innovation diminishes in innovation activities which are completed by a special trained expert group or departments. The third is the reutilization of the department of resource input for enterprise planning which decides the R&D funding. The proportion of R&D investment relative to the operating income is relatively stable, so as to ensure that the enterprise has sufficient R&D investment. The fourth is the predictability of the results of innovation. Based on technical accumulation and experience, large enterprises can often make an objective prediction for an independent innovation. The fifth is the succession of innovations. Product innovation in large enterprises has a strong correlation with their old products. So does the process innovation. Another characteristic is the emphasis on continuous improvement of technology and products that large enterprises focus on, such as increasing product usability to the users, improving the process reliability, etc.
(2) Unconventional independent innovation in small entrepreneurial enterprises
In reality, unconventional independent innovation is mostly driven and carried out by small entrepreneurial enterprises. This kind of independent innovation has the following characteristics: The first is the close contact between innovation and entrepreneurship. Once the new technological invention proves to be repeatable, it is possible for the inventor to create a new company to make the corresponding technological invention become new products that the market demands. The second is that the innovation often comes from the entrepreneur. Hence the innovator is often the entrepreneur. Some examples are: Deng Zhonghan, founder of Vimicro; Li Yanhong, creator of a Chinese search engine; Huang Ming, CEO of Himin Solar, who created a solar city; Qiu Hongyun, a participant in the creation of Seemile Company. They are “entrepreneurial entrepreneurs.” The third is that many innovative achievements exert a revolutionary influence or create a new industry or a new market. This kind of innovation is often a breakthrough, and even makes a disruptive change in the market structure.
1.3.3 Breakthrough innovation of dominating design, core components, and product architecture
As has been noted, based on the perspective of technological breakthroughs, independent innovation can be divided into innovations of dominating design, core components, and product architecture, respectively.
(1) Innovation of dominating design
Technological development is not continuous. The dominant designs of similar products in different periods may be different. According to the technological aspect, the dominant design can often be expressed as the product design scheme and normal innovation that keep developing along an established technology trajectory. The British economist Dosi (1982), who lives in Italy now, has proposed the theory of a technology trajectory. He thinks that a technology trajectory is a regular problem-solving process within a specific technological paradigm. A technological paradigm is a general outlook on the technological problems by specific scientific principles and materials technology. For example, when transistors replaced the electron tube in the era of the integrated circuit, the increasing degree of integrated circuit became a particular trajectory of technological development. Because the change of the dominant design is often the application of a new scientific principle, it needs a system supported by both basic and applied research. It may form the basis of a patent and/or a key patent, which is the protection for the new-generation dominant design. Regarding the market, the dominant design is the consensus of the expectations that the manufacturers and the customers attribute to the product. For example, although the Dvorak keyboard, invented in 1936, is faster than the QWERTY keyboard, invented in 1868, by almost 5%, the QWERTY keyboard has dominated the market in competition due to the earlier acceptance in the market. Based on this, the learning effect and the dominant design will show a “trend of increasing returns,” and may affect the trend of the next generation with the “lock-in effect.”
(2) Innovation of core components
The core components (i. e. the core parts in mechanical products, the same below) is a key part of the whole product, an important technical support for the realization of specific functions of the whole product and the key to the realization of the dominant design. From the perspective of system theory, the whole machine is a big system or even a large complex system, the components are the secondary system, and the core components are the core of the secondary system. The core components reflect the core idea of the whole product design. An example is the automobile, where the gasoline engine obtains kinetic energy by burning in the engine so as to realize the core design of automobile driving. It has a different principle from that of the power system of the pure electric vehicle, the fuel cell vehicle, and the hybrid vehicle. Core component technology is complicated, but it can form a technological platform that provides a series of support systems for the end product, such as cameras, copiers, laser printers, and image scanners of the Japanese company, Canon. The core element of these end products is the “optical engine,” which is based on precision optics, imaging technology, the microprocessor, and precision machinery. Thus, if there is an innovation in the core component, it can provide technical support for the improvement of the present dominant design and the new dominant design. For example, the central processor is mainly responsible for the operation and control of a computer, directly determining the speed of computing. Therefore, only from 1993 to 2000, it experienced four generations of products, that is, Pentium®, Pentium®Ⅱ, Pentium®Ⅲ, and Pentium®4. With its integration level increasing from 3,100,000 to 42,000,000, the speed of computing was greatly accelerated. Of course, the supporting effect of the core component also depends on the matching degree between the core component itself and the product architecture as well as the coordination degree between the core component itself and the other components.
(3) Innovation of product architecture
Product architecture is the way the product components or parts are connected. It decides the function and the performance of the machine product by the system's mechanism. In different product architectures, the product systems will show different functions or performances even with the same components or parts. This is similar to the way vehicle architecture expresses the connecting relationship between each function module, which decides the vehicle load, controllability, comfort, and other functions, and how it determines the reliability, economy, and other performances of the product. Product architecture technology is the way the components and parts are combined and connected. It is a knowledge system for effective functioning of the overall system. Through product architecture innovation, innovators can turn product concepts into specific components of the whole product combination, which may form a more valuable product. And if innovators want to master architecture technology, they must understand the characteristics of the various components, parts, and interrelated mechanisms. Some architecture technology will even change the whole system's function or performance. Architecture technology in product innovation may provide better probability. On the one hand, product architecture has the potential to optimize the overall performance of the product. Without any change in components or parts, gradual product architecture innovation may improve the overall performance of the vehicle. On the other hand, innovation of end products is often the result of technological architecture innovation. In companies such as Sony, in Walkman product innovation, the core components (micro motor, slice rechargeable battery) are invariable. They only changed the architecture products locally and the non-core components, so as to optimize some auxiliary functions and performances. Only from the 1980s to the early 1990s did Sony launch 572 products on the American market: Products such as those making the Walkman more compact in order to meet the demands of children, or lighter with an anti-vibration function to meet the demands of sports, or even improved in its waterproof performance so that people could use it on the beach.
1.3.4 Independent innovation based on cooperation
As stated earlier, based on the organization characteristics of innovation, business and academic circles often regard open innovation, especially cooperative innovation, as an important organizational model of independent innovation.
In 2003, through the study of Qualcomm, Genzyme, Chicago Tribune, Procter & Gamble, and other enterprises, Henry Chesbrough, professor at the Harvard Business School, found that these enterprises would never depend entirely on internal R&D. They had turned to a model that was more open to obtaining technology. He put forward the concept of “open innovation” based on his study, which is “valuable ideas” can be simultaneously obtained from both outside and inside the company, and its pathway towards commercialization can be carried out both inside and outside the company. The open innovation model is becoming an effective model to quicken innovation for some innovative enterprises. Among them, cooperative innovation is the most specific and an important open innovation model. The so-called cooperative innovation is among enterprises, scientific research institutes and universities. It is based on the common interests of partners with the promise of sharing resources or complementary advantages. There is a clear cooperative target, time limit and rules; all parties of the cooperation in the whole process or in some links of it invest and participate in the same way, and share the results and risks. In reality, the key to cooperative innovation is handling fruit, ownership, and common property well. In China, cooperation is the most typical model of independent innovation. To a considerable extent, in recent years, China has achieved many valuable independent innovations based on the enterprise-university-research cooperation.