Nope, the European market *still* doesn't get innovation. It doesn't understand anything about innovation - not the micro or macro-economics, strategic implications, social impacts, or how to finance it.
I'm ranting because the Guardian has published (another)
stupid piece on technology. It basically argues that blogs are bad for business because businesses should exploit information asymmetries. It also attaches serious political and social judgments to blogs and bloggers.
Note to Guardian: Businesses based on simple information asymmetries are
not sustainable. People mostly
hate them. The simplest example is the prototypical shady used car dealer.
Real strategies are built around embedding - not exploiting - what you know in innovations that the market derives value from. Real strategies are
not about value extraction, but about value coordination and creation. In increasingly turbulent markets, businesses can't hope to compete on simple information asymmetries - for the simple reason that real strategies enable competitors to provide consumers greater value at the same or lower cost - the essence of any sustainable market advantage.