Thinking about ways to classify innovations in technology

This paper reports on a small study designed to inform about how we might classify technological innovations by categorical groupings. We begin with a foundational discussion of the constructs of interest: technology, innovation, invention and entrepreneurship. We then theorize about how innovative efforts might be classified in terms of their impact on the technological user. A pilot study is conducted using 50 self-identified entrepreneurial technologists. The results of the study produced four emergent categories for classifying innovations: substitute, alternative, replacement and extension. We present the descriptions of the categories based on the responses from the study and close with a discussion on proof of concept and feasibility in the solution as described by the participants in their interviews.