Assessing the application based utility potential of new technologies

Increasing competitive pressure in the course of globalization, accelerated technological change and the resulting disruption of existing business models are forcing companies to innovate faster, cheaper and more radically. A significant number of established manufacturing companies are facing this challenge by investing in new technologies apart from their core business to increase their innovativeness. Technologies as a sustainable differentiating feature become a relevant investment object and the early identification of high potential technologies a critical success factor. Currently, investment decisions for technologies are often based on the individual experience of the respective decision-makers. Person-dependent, implicit criteria are used for the evaluation within decision-making processes. This procedure is not feasible for the evaluation of new technologies outside a company's own core business and bears a high risk of misjudgment, due to the lack of experience and knowledge of the decision-makers. Furthermore, it is impossible to make investment decisions based on financial indicators such as the return on investment (ROI) at an early stage, since developments are only in the concept phase and high uncertainties prevail. Rather, decisions should be based on the potential, company-specific utility of technologies. Thus, a systematic and transparent evaluation approach is required, which allows an early assessment of the company-specific potential of technologies. This paper presents a model for the assessment of the company-specific utility potential of technologies in the early phases of the innovation process.