Path-breaking innovations are about instigating fundamental changes in people, organizations, communities, and economies. They are complex, continuous, and evolutionary processes that take considerable time, resources, and the efforts of many individuals and organizations to be accomplished successfully. Representing distinct departures from existing practices, they differ from other types of innovation, such as product extensions and incremental improvements. By examining path-breaking innovation processes through in-depth analysis of several large-scale initiatives around the world, the authors explore how profound changes in product, process, and service can be explained and managed, and consider the practical implications for scientific, organizational, institutional, and political leaders concerned with channeling innovation toward economic growth. In-depth analysis of science and technology initiatives at CERN-ATLAS, Airbus, and in stem cell research, the authors explore and illuminate how profound changes in product, process, and service can be explained and managed. Covering such issues as organizational culture, types of knowledge, and large-scale project management and resource distribution, the authors consider the practical implications of radical innovation for scientific, organizational, institutional, and political leaders concerned with channeling innovation toward economic growth.

Innovation is a time-consuming process that involves invention as a beginning and a marketable service or product as an end. But innovation itself, once concluded, is not necessarily a constructive act as some innovations yield positive and some negative results. The way we recognize and develop innovation - so often a serendipitous and almost invisible act in its beginning - is thus a matter of primary importance in today's world where new thoughts and products play such a crucial role in economies across the globe. Nowhere is the general support structure required for success in innovation more starkly illuminated than in the fields of science and medicine, where human well-being is so manifestly at stake. In this work, which draws together the perspectives of a multidisciplinary group of professionals - medical doctors, innovation policy analysts, and academics in business management - Shantha Liyanage and his colleagues provide a thorough examination of the technology innovation process, and display its critical links with organizational functions, so the innovative capacities of organizations can be better prepared to meet the rapid changes of our age.