Waiting games: innovation impasses in situations of high uncertainty

摘要

Scene 1: two companies competing in the same sector of sustainable energy technologies, having developed a novel technology, and both waiting for the other to make the first move and introduce the innovation, which would present the first and best opportunity really to learn about public acceptance of the innovation. Scene 2: a start-up venture in the medical devices sector waiting for established companies to invest in the early phases of the development of a new demonstrator; these companies waiting for the start-up to demonstrate the reproducibility of its demonstrator. Scene 3: a company in the emerging field of nanomedicine waiting for regulatory decisions by the traditional organisations mandated to make these decisions, whilst the latter waits for the new technology to stabilise so that its risks and benefits can be assessed.