Infrastructure for the 21st Century Framework for a Research Agenda (1987) / Chapter Skim
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3 Barriers to Innovation
3 Barriers to Innovation
Pages 27-38
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From page 27... ...
The implementation strategy for an mEastructure research agenda, presented In the next chapter, must comider the barriers to research arid to the spread of research results ~ desenbed In this chapter. A national strategy for infrastructure research and development must ensure that significant resources are devoted to te`~bnology transfer efforts as wed as to te~bnolog~cal and scientific research on new products and processes.
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From page 28... ...
The profit motive that often Entree research in other industries ~ absent from the area of ~frsatructure; thus, research ~ not typically an activity of public infrastructure agencies. ~ Although the large investments involved would seem to promise a profitable market for the priorate sector, ~ fact, the fragmentation of control within the various modes has discouraged any sort of standardization in facility design.
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From page 29... ...
BARRI1:RS TO TH1: DIFFUSION OF INNOVATIVE TECHNOLOGI1:S E,ren if the rate of the discovery and development of new technology is increased under the stimulus of a national infrastructure research and development agenda, significant barriers would ret main in transferring inno~rati~re research products from the laboratory to widespread use in the field. Such diffilsion-o£inno~ration problems are not limited to infrastructure, as evidenced by the recent attention to problems that American manufactures have had ~ de~relop~g the video cassette recorder and other products based on technologies invented in the United States.
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From page 30... ...
Similarly, the cultural tendency toward Nippon rather than reuse of produce makes it harder to develop technologies for improved management, maintenance, and modernization of ex~t~g infield tructure. For example, technologies for recycling soUd waste exist, but they face mgra~ned cultural reactance to separation at the source, that is, to separation of glass, metal, and paper at the individual consumer ferret.
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From page 31... ...
To introduce innovations into this class of engineering Gym tem'3 requires large-scale, complex, probably costly, and long-term research arid development efforts. These features make it difficult to mount support for infrastructure innovations, and to sustain support once mounted in jurisdictions with limited resources and shor~term political agendas.
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From page 32... ...
For example, the destructive effects of cherr~cab Wed ~ clearing ice Tom highways and bridges are weD known, but there has been little research into alternatives or systematic evaluation of the costs of using these chemical methods. Researth In civil engineering fields lacks sustained funding.
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From page 33... ...
~ - -·~ ~.r < ~ ~ ,~ Organizational Inertia. Organization theory h" identified factors that promote organizational inertia arid reactance to change, including the natural desire to ma~ntam the status quo, reactance to the traumas of change, the inability to see problems due to mgra~ned attitudes and e~rery-day routines, and constraints such as limited resources, sunk costs, mBex~ble rules Aria regulations, and limited personnel capacity (Kaufin~, 1971~.
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From page 34... ...
Frequently, in the case of 8 public agency, the agency must conduct an effective public relations effort to bring about public acceptance. For Example: For 40 years, water pollution control plants throughout the world had built sludge digesters huge concrete tanlce in which putrescible raw sludge undergoes anaerobic digestion to convert the sludge to a non-putr~cible soil conditioner.
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From page 35... ...
Models include Public Technology, Idc., which was created by the major urban public interest groups National League of Cities, International City Managers Association, U.S. Conference of Mayors, and National Association of Counties to promote innovative technologies, and, in the education field, the National Diffusion Network.
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From page 36... ...
provides a current example of such cooperative research "d development involving computer and microelectronics industries, similar to the program managed by the Electric Power Research institute for the nation's electric utilities.
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From page 37... ...
This ensures that the research focuses on areas of high priority and that the development phase results in useful products that can be used with a minimum of additional adaptation by users. Most put federal efforts to stimulate technological i~no~ration have had limit succe - , ~ part because they underestimated the problems ~ transferring innovations to the field.
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From page 38... ...
Such research would be aimed at identifying strategies for overcoming barriers and improving the transfer of mno~rations to the primary operators of the nation's infrastructure state ~d local.
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