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Corresponding author:
1 Non-Governmental Organization “Noosphere”, Ukraine.
E-mail: tetiana.b.serediuk@gmail.com
2 Cherkasy State Technological University, Ukraine.
E-mail: yurockv@gmail.com

DOI: https://doi.org/10.30525/2256-0742/2018-4-5-315-319

COMMON FEATURES AND DISTINCTIONS  
BET WEEN HIGH TECHNOLOGY AND INNOVATION

Tetiana Serediuk1, Yurii Vdovychenko2

Abstract. The goods, which are positioned on modern global markets as innovative and high-tech products, 
occupy more and more segments, owing to the contemporary modifications of the innovation diffusion theory 
and the ways of its implementation on high-tech markets. However, the meaning of the term “high technology” 
and “innovations” is quite disputable. An identification of the ontological characteristics of these definitions is of 
particular interest and practical value in terms of the transformation of a scientific and methodological framework 
for control of innovation diffusion in conditions of invariance on the market of high-tech information technology. 
Therefore, the author’s article is aimed at the identification of the above-stated definitions and generalization of 
their distinctions. Methodology. The methodology of the article is based on the theoretical researches of Ukrainian 
and foreign scientists, which are synthesized, systematized, and analysed to identify the distinctive features of “high 
tech” and “innovations”. One of the critical methodological tool, represented in the research, is an application of 
frequency analysis using online service “Google Books Ngram Viewer”, which enabled us to compare frequency of 
references in scientific researches of the term “innovations” and “high technologies” as well as to compile analytical 
database of the research. Results. As a result of the author’s study, it has been established that the frequency of 
using the term “innovations” is continuously increasing and the definition itself has a huge variety of interpretations.  
This paper suggests generalizing the innovations as the implementation of the new idea, which produces widespread 
and long-term changes. As distinct from innovations, a term “high technology” means the narrower spectrum of 
radical changes. Although it has a few names, such as “high-technology”, “high tech”, “high-tech”, “hi-tech”, which, 
besides technology, can have other functionality. Practical implications. The presented results make it possible to 
develop more efficient communication channels for innovation diffusion, more precisely to identify innovators and 
mechanisms of their involvement in corporate activities, alternative forms of innovative activities in corporations. 
Value/originality. As a result of the study, it has been proved that technologies have common features with radical 
technical innovations, such as high science intensity, enhanced efficiency. Nevertheless, while being distributed 
on the market, innovation becomes a commodity and high technologies remain the same until the creation of 
state-of-the-art technologies. On this basis, it is possible more precisely to introduce innovations of IT companies 
according to information technology market segments.

Key words: global, markets, goods, modifications, theories, diffusion, innovations, high technologies, corporations.

JEL Classification: L00, N7, O14, O17, O3, Y30

1. Introduction
In conditions of modern dynamic economy and 

reduction in the duration of product cycles, a key to 
commercial success is an ability continuously and 
promptly to create new products and processes, driven 
by the development of new technologies. 

The emergence of new technologies depends on the 
efficiency of researches. Thus, according to data of the 
World Bank (2017), for the period between 2000 and 2014, 
a number of R&D scientists has increased by 1.39 times 
(from 807 to 1127 scientists per a million of people), 

and a number of patent applications, submitted to the 
World Intellectual Property Organizations (WIPO), – by 
2.08 times for residents and 1.77 times for non-residents 
(up to 1.7 and 0.8 millions of patent applications).  
The number of scientific and technical articles in journals 
has increased by 1.9 times (from 1.2 to 2.3 million 
articles) for the period between 2003 and 2016. At 
the same time, proceeds from intellectual property 
used for the same period has increased by 3.59 times  
(from 92,059 to 330,084 billion US Dollars), 
demonstrating an increase in the efficiency of researches.



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A final result of the research is to gain new knowledge 

that will become a foundation for high technologies 
and innovations. Cutting-edge technologies, which 
implement the innovative developments, are called 
high technologies. Creation of new high technologies 
is always based on innovations, which is the key 
driving force of economic development and is mainly 
a combination of the available production factors 
(Schumpeter, 2011). Sometimes high technologies and 
innovations are identified as the same ones.

The high technology world is characterized by an 
extremely high level of market and technological 
uncertainty (Moriarty & Kosnik, 1989), and 
innovations in the high-tech sphere are not always 
welcomed by society. Thus, Dvorak keyboard, that 
has been developed for decades, despite its advantage 
over the standard QWERTY keyboard, is not so 
widespread (Rogers, 2010). At the same time, most 
of the available innovations have been developed as 
a response to discrete events, problematic stories and 
new technological opportunities (Taalbi, 2017). 

Despite the fact that high technology sector is usually 
considered as a dynamic sector of the economy, since 
2000 a very significant slowdown of entrepreneurial 
activities has been documented, primarily, in the USA 
(Haltiwanger, Hathaway & Miranda, 2014). 

It leaves relevant the issue of the study of high-tech 
market development and peculiarities of innovation 
diffusion in this market.

In modern global markets, the goods, which are 
positioned as innovative and high-tech products, occupy 
more and more segments owing to modern modifications 
of innovation diffusion theory and the ways of their 
implementation on high-tech markets. However, the 
meaning of the terms “high technologies” and “innovations” 
is still quite disputable. An identification of ontological 
characteristics of these categories is of considerable 
interest and practical value in terms of the transformation 

of a scientific and methodological framework for control 
of innovation diffusion in conditions of invariance on the 
market of information technologies. The current paper 
aims to demonstrate the terminological distinctions 
between high technology and innovation.

2. Definition of high technology
In the literature, the term “high technology” is close 

to the term “high-technology”, “high tech”, “high-tech”, 
“hi-tech” (Figure 1). 

Fig. 1 shows that in the second half of the 1980s of 
ХХ century the acronym “high-tech” became popular. 
The term “high-tech” was used as an acronym of high 
technology or an adjective that means using, requiring or 
involved in high technology: high-tech product, high-tech 
industry, high-tech cluster, high-tech sector. “Hi-tech” is 
often understood as architectural or designer style.

The term “high technology” is used to define technology. 
High technologies are characterized by the high degree of 
uncertainty in the achievement of a final result, uniqueness, 
prompt obsolescence, shortening of the life cycle – some 
of the high technologies are outdated at the stage of 
introduction into production (Skyba, 2014). A typical 
feature of high technology is high science intensity, high 
risks, and rapidity of changes in high-tech markets. Table 
1 shows definitions of high technology by different authors. 

Thus, high technology is a cutting edge technology, 
having a high knowledge intensity, which enhances 
the value of product or process for the consumer in the 
sense that the consumer obtains better quality, reduced 
costs or easier use of products in comparison with the 
outdated technology.

Modern high technologies are information technologies, 
programming, robotic technology, computing technology, 
aerospace technology, nanotechnologies, artificial 
intelligence, microelectronics, nuclear power engineering, 
biotechnologies, pharmaceutics, and gene engineering. 

 

0.0001%

0.0002%

0.0003%

1970 1980 1990 2000

Fr
eq

ue
nc

y

Phrase
high - tech

high technology

high - technology

high tech

hi - tech

Figure 1. The frequency of n-grams “high technology” etc.

Source: data from Google Books Ngram Viewer (https://books.google.com/ngrams)



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3. Definition of innovation
In the literature, the term “innovation” is used very 

often, even too often. For the last years, it has become 
just another buzzword (Shaver, 2014). According to the 
data of Google Books Ngram, a frequency of use of the 
term “high technology” is significantly lower than the 
use of the term “innovations” (Figure 2).

Table 2 shows definitions of the term “innovation” by 
different authors. 

Thus, innovation is the implemented new ideas, 
which produce widespread or long-term changes. 
Creation and introduction of innovations is an efficient 
tool for enhancing efficiency and competitive advantage 
of individual enterprises, as well as the entire industries. 
In case of successful diffusion, the innovation becomes 
a commodity.

4. Common features and distinctions
A review of the recent literature indicates linkages 

between high technology and innovation. The majority 
of existing articles fail to provide clear distinctions 
between the features of high technology and 
innovation. Comparing the terms “high technologies” 
and “innovations” Butko (2017) defines the latter 
as a broader notion, which encompasses a wider 
spectrum of radical changes. A common feature of high 
technology and an innovation is that they must have 
been implemented.

In case of innovation, the level of maturity of products 
ultimately reduces the qualification requirements and it 
subsequently becomes a commodity: products become 
reliable, production processes – standardized, and 
price premium, obtained from the initial technological 

Table 1
Definitions of high technology

Author Definition

Shanklin, Ryans & Ryans 
(1987)

1) an industry that has the double number of technical employees and doubles the R&D outlays;
2) technology that requires a strong scientific/technical basis; can obsolete existing technology rapidly;  
as new technology comes on stream its applications create or revolutionize market and demands.

Laliberté (2010)
1) any highly technical or specialized technological equipment or application;
2) mostly used for technology involving complex electronics or software.

Skyba (2014) A synthesis of science, art and technological knowledge.

Butko (2017)

1) technologies, based on systematized advanced knowledge, which can be materialized in certain products; 
2) ensure more efficient cost-benefit ratio in comparison with previous technologies, exceeding the performance 
indicators of previous analogues or having no analogues in the past; 
3) trigger a chain reaction of innovations or initiate dynamic processes of sociocultural systems self-organizing.

Keeble, Wilkinson 
(2017)

1) a catch-all phrase usually denoting industries producing technologically-advanced, sophisticated and 
changing products;
2) firms and industries whose products or services embody new, innovative and advanced technologies 
developed by the application of scientific and technological expertise.

Source: formed by the authors

 

0.0000%

0.0005%

0.0010%

0.0015%

0.0020%

1920 1940 1960 1980 2000

Fr
eq

ue
nc

y Phrase
innovation

high technology

Figure 2. Comparison of frequency of n-grams “innovation” and “high technology”

Source: data from Google Books Ngram Viewer (https://books.google.com/ngrams)



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advantage, is exhausted (Nahm, 2014). At the same time, 
science intensity of products reduces. In the case of high-
tech products, qualification requirements and science 
intensity are high during the whole product cycle.

Ding (2016) notes that 95% of innovations in the 
high-tech sector are seen in the technical areas. Oslo 
Manual highlights four types of innovations (OECD, 
2005): product innovations, process innovations, 
organizational innovations and marketing innovations. 
High technologies are usually related to the first ones. 

5. Conclusions
Therefore, based on the analysis of publicly available 

studies, it has been established that the frequency of 
using the term “innovations” is continuously increasing, 
and the term itself has a huge variety of interpretations. 
This paper suggests a generalized interpretation of the 
new idea, which produces widespread or long-term 
changes. As distinct from innovations, the term “high 
technology” means the narrower spectrum of radical 
changes, however, it has a few names, such as “high-
technology”, “high tech”, “high-tech”, “hi-tech”, which, 
besides technology, can have other functionality.  

It can belong to high technology, architectural or  
designer style. Concerning the ontological 
characteristics, we suggest understanding is as cutting 
edge technologies, including the high level of knowledge 
intensity that enhances the value of product or process 
for the customer in the sense that such level ensures 
better quality, reduces costs or makes use of product 
easier in comparison with the outdated technology. 

High technologies have common features with 
radical technical innovations, like high science intensity, 
increased productivity; although, in the result of market 
diffusion innovation becomes a commodity and high 
technologies remain the same before the creation of the 
new advanced technologies.

The results presented enable us to develop more efficient 
communication channels for innovation diffusion and 
more precisely to identify innovators and mechanisms of 
their involvement in corporate activities, alternative forms 
of innovative activities in corporations. On this basis, it 
is possible more precisely to introduce innovations of IT 
companies according to information technology market 
segments. Therefore, it is advantageous to study innovation 
diffusion in high-tech markets, taking into consideration 
the specifics of such innovations.

Table 2
Definitions of innovation

Author Definition

Dosi 
(1988)

The search for, and the discovery, experimentation, development, imitation, and adoption of new products, 
new production processes, and new organizational set-ups.

West and Farr 
(1990)

Refers to the deliberate initiation and application within a firm of ideas, processes, products or procedures 
which are new to the adopted unit and are created in order to benefit the firm or the wider society.

OECD (2005)
The implementation of a new or significantly improved product (good or service), or process, a new 
marketing method, or a new organizational method in business practices, workplace organization or external 
relations.

O’Sullivan & Dooley 
(2009)

The process of making changes, large and small, radical and incremental, to products, processes, and services 
that results in the introduction of something new for the organization that adds value to customers and 
contributes to the knowledge store of the organization.

Christensen 
(2013)

Refers to a change in one of the technologies, using which an organization transforms labour, capital, 
materials, and information into products and services of greater value.

Dos Santos Faria (2014) Means technologies or practices that are new to a given society and they are not necessarily new in absolute terms.

McKinley, Latham, & Braun 
(2014)

Any novel product, service, or production process that departs significantly from the prior product, service, 
or production process architectures

Nahm 
(2014)

The process, used by firms to develop, master, and commercialize new product designs, services, and 
production processes. Includes the process used to introduce new and improved technologies and practices 
in commercial markets.

Tidd and Bessant (2014) Described as the process of creating value from ideas.

Witzel (2014) The process of introducing a new idea that creates a widespread or long-term change.

Mukhtar 
(2016)

In general, innovation can be considered as an interactive process to bring value into the market. In many 
cases, the process is initiated by a technological breakthrough from research activity. This activity is followed 
by other activities such as manufacturing and marketing. 

Source: formed by the authors



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