An examination on the integration of technological and business innovation: cases of Yahoo! and Google
Ping Lan, Gregory A. Hutcheson, Yavor Markov, Nathaniel W. Runyan · International Journal of Technology Marketing · 2007
This research aims to examine the integration of different types of innovation in two world leading innovative companies: Yahoo! and Google. Through coding and analysing over two thousand publicly available documents including patents, annual reports, news releases, and search engine watch reports, the two companies' innovation efforts over their entire development history were scrutinised against the background of the search engine and online directory industry. This research finds that there is a common factor contributing to the success of the two giants: they all actively pursue the synergy of product innovation, process innovation, and business innovation ? innovation tripartite. Recognising the integration of the tripartite, on the one hand, offers clues for understanding the best practices of innovation; on the other hand, challenges some traditional concepts on innovation such as the dichotomy structure and the four-stage innovation life cycle.