OTA Contributes to Technology Policy Dialogue
“Successful innovation and commercialization depend on far more than a strong science and technology base.” --- OTA report
The debate between Republicans and Democrats over the federal government’s technology policies has spawned a number of recent reports. OTA explores the issue in a 96-page paper entitled “Innovation and Commercialization of Emerging Technologies,” completed about the time OTA was shut down in September. While it does not advocate any specific technology programs, the paper contributes to the dialogue by “highlighting the growing importance of factors other than basic research” that go into achieving the commercial success of a product. It contends that the “linear model” used in the past to dictate government policy is inadequate, and that any new model “must recognize the need for new forms of interaction among industry, government and universities...”
Since World War II, the U.S. government’s traditional role in technology development has been to fund basic research, and to provide an environment conducive to technological innovation, based upon tax, antitrust, patent and intellectual property policies. This strategy was based on the “linear model” of innovation, which assumed a direct sequence from funding for basic science to commercialization of technology. However, the paper finds that in the past two decades, increased competition from other nations has demonstrated that U.S. firms “cannot rely on scientific leadership alone to maintain their competitive advantage;" other countries have been able to capitalize on basic research performed in the U.S. and bring a product to market sooner. This leads OTA to argue that the linear model results from “an incomplete understanding of the ways in which firms develop and market new products.”
The report looks at a multitude of factors which influence technological innovation and commercial success. Innovation is driven by many forces other than new science, including using existing technologies in new ways, exploiting known science in new ways, and applying existing products or processes to new market needs. OTA also points out that products and industries go through a maturation process; initial advances based upon new science give way to incremental improvements and then product maturity before a new discovery might start the whole process over again. Successful commercialization of an innovation may depend on the nature of potential markets, competition from other technologies, cost, design, or the availability of financing.
"[G]overnment may have a valuable role to play in helping firms overcome the barriers they face in bringing new technologies to market,” OTA says. That role may vary from industry to industry: “As the innovation process itself differs across industries,” the paper states, “so do the barriers to successful innovation and commercialization, and so, too, does the proper role for government.... Changes in the competitive environment affect...industries differently, requiring different responses from government.” OTA concludes that “new forms of cooperation will need to be developed and tested.”
The OTA report, OTA-BP-ITC-165, can be purchase from the Government Printing Office at (202) 512-1800; fax: (202) 512-2250.
