Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management/Review: J. Colannino

I have been searching for many years for a suitable text with which to teach a course on technology and innovation management, and at last I have found it: The Handbook of Technology and Innovation Management, edited by Scott Shane.  The book is a source book with each chapter written by an expert in the field; however, Shane's masterful editing coheres the book and makes it read as if it were written by a single author.  Having written my own book and collaborated on several others, I know firsthand how difficult this is.  I have worked in R&D since I was 20 years old, and how I wished I had this text when I began to manage technology and innovation development years later.  The book would have saved me many hard knocks.  Well, that was then and this is now.  And despite thirty years of work in the field and having the privilege of leading global technology and innovation for a world class company, this work still taught me a few things.

The book is organized into 16 chapters subdivided into five parts.  Part 1, The Evolution of Technology, Markets, and Industry, contains two chapters: 1. Technology and Industry Evolution, and 2. The Evolution of Markets.  Part 2, The Development and Introduction of New Products, comprises three chapters: 3. Understanding Customer Needs, 4. Product Development as a Problem-Solving Process, and 5. Managing the 'Unmanageables' of Sustained Product Innovation.  Part 3, The Management and Organization of Innovation, also holds three chapters: 6. Rival Interpretations of Balancing Exploration and Exploitation, 7. R&D project Selection and Portfolio Management, and 8. Managing the Innovative Performance of Technical Professionals.  Part 4, Technology Strategy, contains four chapters: 9. The Economics of Strategy of Standards and Standardization, 10 Intellectual Property and Innovations, 11. Orchestrating Appropriability, and 12. Individual Collaborations, Strategic Alliances and Innovation.  Part 5, Who Innovates?, encompasses the last four chapters: 13. Technology-Based Entrepreneurship, 14. Knowledge Spillover..., 15. The Financing of Innovation, and 16. The Contribution of Public Entities to Innovation and Technological Change. 

The text is a very good introduction to the panoply of issues facing those who manage technology and innovation including very important areas such as how innovation diffuses in society (and how to influence that diffusion), how to develop robust products and discover unarticulated and unmet needs, how to manage the NPD portfolio and select among competing projects, marketing and technology strategy, and intellectual property protection.  It is the very best book I have ever read on the subject and I recommend it wholeheartedly.