| DESCRIPTION |
The author identifies four definitions of research
field:
- a field of action
- a guideline for research development
- a final destination
- a risk limit
Field of action:
Example 1: to define this concept, the auhor
refers to the case of Tecnocomposit Spa.
“In 1986 Tecnocomposit Spa, a Montedison Group Company,
was looking for new business ideas about composite materials. Tecnomare
was asked to conduct an opportunity research; this company was specialized
in the structural planning of off-shore oil activities. Through this
analysis, the company aimed to assess the technical feasibility and
the commercial interest for the Montedison group of planning, producing
and selling “fibreglass” off-shore structures (or single
parts) to replace traditional metal structures. The field of action
of the research was outlined according to three major thoughts:
- Fibreglass manufactured products are not exposed to
the corrosion of salted water. For this reason, almost all pleasure
boats are made in fibreglass. As a result, the research was limited
to off-shore oil plants and did not include any ground activities.
- The company used semiautomation lay up technology which
is particularly good for manufacturing customized large-sized products.
Therefore, they focused their research on unique large-sized manufactured
products or very special products. For example, pipe-lines and other
standard products, which can be implemented through full automation
technology, were excluded.
- An important quality of fibreglass is that, given the
same stress resistance, it is lighter than iron materials. Their
research was limited to the uses where lightness is not only a quality
but a precondition or even a binding factor for the whole structure.
As Tecnomare was specialized in planning platforms
and manufactured products related to off-shore oil activities, the
group was silently expected to conduct their research on components
and manufactured products for oil platforms, such as dwellings for
the personnel, the helicopter landing platform and so on. However,
this restraint had not been expressed. The Venice Tecnomare staff,
almost entirely made up of young engineers operating in a stimulating
climate for creativity development, interpreted their task in a free
and open-minded way. Each member brought his/her personal experience
into the group. The work group included sailing boat lovers, experts
of the Venice ecoenvironment problems and careful watchers of things
and situations from all over the world, experienced during work missions
to places like Alaska or Texas.
They found out that: the typical uses related to oil activities were
not really interesting in the short term for many reasons:
- too conservative attitude of oil companies that do not
want to run any risk. So they reject any new material or supplier,
provided that they are not facing a lock-in problem that cannot
be solved through common technologies, type-tested materials and
regular suppliers;
- need to improve the “non-inflammability”
of fibreglass manufactured products and prove the efficiency of
new technologies through 1:1 scale prototypes;
- off-shore investment cuts carried out by all oil companies
after the slump of the oil price occurred in 1986.
In this context, the products identified for not
specific off-shore uses, and therefore outside the research field,
turned out to be very useful. Among these products, there are some
new “work” boats” (Bertone, 1993, p. 106-108)
Guideline of opportunity research
If you do not know exactly what you are looking for, you can just follow
a guideline of opportunity research, such as the innovative sport
equipment quoted in the Brekka example (see Bertone, 1993, p.108)
Destination of opportunity research
You can start your opportunity research process by pointing out your
final target.
Risk limits
A further method to outline your research field is fixing the highest
risk degree that you are ready to accept.
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