Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Home
  • Home
EnglishFrançais
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design

Article contents

A Conceptual Framework for Breakthrough Technologies

Part of: Design Methods and Tools

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 July 2019

Andreas Makoto Hein  and
Juliette Brun
Andreas Makoto Hein
Affiliation:
Laboratoire Genie Industriel, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay;
Juliette Brun
Affiliation:
UMR GMPA, INRA, AgroParisTech, Université Paris-Saclay
Corresponding
E-mail address:
andreas-makoto.hein@centralesupelec.fr
Save pdf (0.75 mb)

Abstract

Breakthrough technologies introduce a radically new capability or a drastic performance improvement. However, the existing engineering design literature does not specifically pay attention to them. In this paper, we present a conceptual framework for breakthrough technologies, aiming for a more detailed characterization of breakthrough technologies. First, based on a literature survey, we reflect on the relationship between breakthrough technology and innovation. In addition, we explore the relationship between breakthrough technologies at the component and system level. Next, we propose a conceptual framework with dimensions in which breakthroughs may occur and the corresponding expansion of concepts and knowledge, drawing from C-K theory. We subsequently apply the framework to the case of a laser sail-propelled interstellar probe. We conclude that the relationship between component and system-level breakthrough technologies requires further exploration. Furthermore, the coupling between the breakthrough technology and market breakthrough in the form of a new business model seems interesting for future work.

Keywords

Technology Systems Engineering (SE) Design theory Breakthrough technology Radical innovation
Type
Article
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society: International Conference on Engineering Design , Volume 1 , Issue 1 , July 2019 , pp. 1333 - 1342
Creative Commons
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
© The Author(s) 2019

References

Abernathy, W.J. and Utterback, J.M. (1978), “Patterns of industrial innovation”, Technology Review, Vol. 80 No. 7, pp. 40–47.Google Scholar
Atwater, H. A., Davoyan, A.R., Ilic, O., Jariwala, D., Sherrott, M.C., Went, C.M. and Wong, J. (2018), “Materials challenges for the Starshot lightsail”, Nature Materials, Vol. 17, pp. 861–867.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chandy, R.K. and Tellis, G. J. (2000), “The incumbent's curse? Incumbency, size, and radical product innovation”, Journal of Marketing, Vol. 64 No. 3, pp. 1–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chandy, R. and Prabhu, J. (2010), “Innovation typologies”, In Wiley international encyclopedia of marketing, Part Vol. 5. Product Innovation and Management, Wiley.Google Scholar
Chanute, O. (1899), Progress in Flying Machines, Courier Corporation.Google Scholar
Constant, E. (1980), The origins of the turbojet revolution, Johns Hopkins University Press.Google Scholar
Crawley, E., Cameron, B. and Selva, D. (2015), Systems Architecture: Strategy and Product Development for Complex Systems, Prentice Hall Press.Google Scholar
Demil, B. and Lecocq, X. (2010), “Business model evolution: in search of dynamic consistency”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 43 No. 2–3, pp. 227–246.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Drexler, K. E. (2013), Radical Abundance, PublicAffairs books.Google Scholar
Fragola, J. R., Morse, E. L., Putney, B. and Diapice, J. (2010), “A practical top-down approach to assess programmatic risk for projects with low-TRL elements”. In European Space Agency, (Special Publication) ESA SP (Vol. 680 SP).Google Scholar
Garcia, R. (2010), “Types of Innovation”, In Wiley Encyclopedia of Management, Wiley.Google Scholar
Garcia, R. and Calantone, R. (2002), “A critical look at technological innovation typology and innovativeness terminology: a literature review”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 19 No. 2, pp. 110–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hatchuel, A. and Weil, B. (2003), “A new approach of innovative Design: an introduction to CK theory”, DS Vol. 31: Proceedings of ICED 03.Google Scholar
Hein, A., Jankovic, M. and Condat, H. (2017), “Breakthrough technologies: principle feasibility debates”, In 21st International Conference on Engineering Design 2017.Google Scholar
Hein, A., Long, K.F., Fries, D., Perakis, N., Genovese, A., Zeidler, S. and Armstrong, R. (2017), “The Andromeda Study: A Femto-Spacecraft Mission to Alpha Centauri”, ArXiv Preprint, 1708.03556, Retrieved from http://arxiv.org/abs/1708.03556Google Scholar
Henderson, R. and Clark, K. (1990), “Architectural innovation: The reconfiguration of existing product technologies and the failure of established firms”, Administrative Science Quarterly, Vol. 35 No. 1, pp. 9–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hughes, T. P. (1993), Networks of power: electrification in Western society, JHU Press, pp. 1880–1930.Google Scholar
Huygens, C. (1680), A New Motive Power by Means of Gunpowder and Air, Royal Academy of Sciences.Google Scholar
Isaksson, O., Eckert, C., Borgue, O., Hallstedt, S.I., Hein, A., Gericke, K. and Öhrwall Rönnbäck, A. B. (2019), “Perspectives on Innovation: The Role of Engineering Design”, In 22nd International Conference on Engineering Design, Delft, Netherlands.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Knoll, D., Golkar, A. and de Weck, O. (2018), “A concurrent design approach for model-based technology roadmapping”, In Systems Conference (SysCon), 2018 Annual IEEE International (pp. 1–6). IEEE. In 2018 Annual IEEE International Systems Conference (SysCon) (pp. 1–6).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kotsemir, M. (2013), “Innovation concepts and typology–an evolutionary discussion (No. WP BRP 05/STI/2013)”, Higher School of Economics Research Paper, Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/Papers.cfm?abstract_id=2221299CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lubin, P. (2016), “A Roadmap to Interstellar Flight”, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, Vol. 69 No. 2–3.Google Scholar
Mankins, J. (1995), Technology readiness levels, White Paper, Advanced Concepts Office Office of Space Access and Technology NASA.Google Scholar
Masters, B. and Thiel, P. (2014), Zero to one: notes on start ups, or how to build the future, Random House.Google Scholar
McGrath, R.G. (2010), “Business models: A discovery driven approach”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 43 No. 2–3, pp. 247–261.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Merriam-Webster Inc. (2004), Merriam-Webster's collegiate dictionary, Merriam-Webster.Google Scholar
O'Connor, G.C. and Rice, M.P. (2013), “A comprehensive model of uncertainty associated with radical innovation”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 30, pp. 2–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
OECD. (1991), The nature of innovation and the evolution of the productive system. technology and productivity-the challenge for economic policy.Google Scholar
Osterwalder, A. (2004), “The business model ontology: A proposition in a design science approach”. Retrieved from http://www.academia.edu/download/30373644/thebusiness-model-ontology.pdfGoogle Scholar
Pahl, G., Beitz, W., Feldhusen, J. and Grote, K. (2007), Engineering design: a systematic approach, Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rice, M., Colarelli O'Connor, G., Peters, L. and Morone, J. (1998), “Managing discontinuous innovation”, Research Technology Management, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 52–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rose, D. J. (1971), “Controlled nuclear fusion: Status and outlook”. Science, Vol. 172 No. 3985, pp. 797–808.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Sahal, D. (1981), Patterns of technological innovation, Addison-Wesley.Google Scholar
Sauser, B., Verma, D., Ramirez-Marquez, J. and Gove, R. (2006), “From TRL to SRL: The concept of systems readiness levels”, In Conference on Systems Engineering Research, Los Angeles, CA, USA.Google Scholar
Smaling, R. and de Weck, O. (2007), “Assessing risks and opportunities of technology infusion in system design”, Systems Engineering, Vol. 10 No. 1, pp. 1–25. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/sys.20061/abstractCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, X.M. and Montoya-Weiss, M.M. (1998), “Critical development activities for really new versus incremental products”, Journal of Product Innovation Management, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 124–135.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Suh, E. S., Furst, M. R., Mihalyov, K. J. and de Weck, O. (2010), “Technology infusion for complex systems: A framework and case study”. Systems Engineering, Vol. 13 No. 2, pp. 186–203.Google Scholar
Teece, D. J. (2010), “Business models, business strategy and innovation”, Long Range Planning, Vol. 43 No. 2–3, pp. 172–194.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Teller, A. (2013), “Google X Head on Moonshots: 10X Is Easier Than 10 Percent”, Retrieved April 22, 2017, from https://www.wired.com/2013/02/moonshots-matter-heres-how-to-make-them-happen/Google Scholar
Vincenti, W. (1992), “Engineering knowledge, type of design, and level of hierarchy: further thoughts about what engineers know”, Technological Development and Science in the Industrial Age, Boston Studies in the Philosophy of Science, Vol. 144, pp. 17–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Full text views

Full text views reflects PDF downloads, PDFs sent to Google Drive, Dropbox and Kindle and HTML full text views.

Total number of HTML views: 0
Total number of PDF views: 283 *
View data table for this chart

* Views captured on Cambridge Core between 26th July 2019 - 24th January 2021. This data will be updated every 24 hours.

Access
Open access
Hostname: page-component-76cb886bbf-wsww6 Total loading time: 0.721 Render date: 2021-01-24T16:55:51.489Z Query parameters: { "hasAccess": "1", "openAccess": "1", "isLogged": "0", "lang": "en" } Feature Flags: { "shouldUseShareProductTool": true, "shouldUseHypothesis": true, "isUnsiloEnabled": true, "metricsAbstractViews": false, "figures": false, "newCiteModal": false }

Send article to Kindle

To send this article to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about sending to your Kindle. Find out more about sending to your Kindle.

Note you can select to send to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be sent to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

A Conceptual Framework for Breakthrough Technologies
Available formats
×

Send article to Dropbox

To send this article to your Dropbox account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Dropbox.

A Conceptual Framework for Breakthrough Technologies
Available formats
×

Send article to Google Drive

To send this article to your Google Drive account, please select one or more formats and confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your <service> account. Find out more about sending content to Google Drive.

A Conceptual Framework for Breakthrough Technologies
Available formats
×
×

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

Conflicting interests

Do you have any conflicting interests? *