Information flow and industrial innovation

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Abstract
The SAPPHO Project (Scientific Activity Predictor from Patterns with Heuristic Origins) was launched in 1968, with a grant from the Science Research Council, as a study of success and failure in industrial innovation. Two facts are worth emphasizing in introducing the project briefly. The first is that it had been noted by a number of researchers that, in introducing new products and processes to the market, there is a high failure rate. It varies from 60 to 90 per cent, depending on the sector of industry and the nature of the market. The second fact is allied to this. Innovations appear to happen in clusters, very seldom in isolation. Thus, when the world market for a particular chemical expands and forces up its price, several firms in the industry will encourage research into cost reducing or quantity increasing processes. Of this group of innovating firms, one or two will succeed commercially with a process, others will succeed technologically but not commercially, and some will fail on both counts.

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