Improvement of technology characteristics and reduction of costs. Spread of an innovation, usually accompanied by improvement. It also understates the role of interactions among different actors and between the five functions listed above. Successful innovations may spread geographically and also fulfill much broader functions. The classic example is the steam engine, developed as a means of pumping water out of deep mines in Cornwall, England, but to become the main source of industrial motive power and the key technology in the rail revolution worldwide.
Innovation draws on underlying scientific or other knowledge.
Some kind of search or experimentation process is usually involved. Many innovations depend on the exploitation of tacit knowledge obtained through learning by doing or experience. Technological change is a cumulative process and depends on the history of the individual or organization involved. These five features render some individuals, firms, or countries better at innovation than others. Many of these features introduce positive feedback into the innovation process, so that countries or firms that take the technological lead in a market or field can often retain that lead for a considerable time.