ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the relation between scientific research and technological innovation. The relation between thermodynamics and the development of steam engines was certainly in accordance with the ‘technology as applied science’ paradigm. Steam engines were developed before a proper understanding of what happened with the steam in the engine was established. The idea that technology is merely applied science became very popular in industrial corporations in the 1950s when large companies refocused their corporate laboratories to have developing ‘fundamental’ knowledge as their primary task. That knowledge could then by transferred to departments in which products were developed, based on the fundamental knowledge that had been gained by the central corporate laboratory. Philosopher of technology Andries Sarlemijn has developed a typology for product innovation processes in relation to scientific research. Although a small sample was used, researchers tend still to report in percentages of customers having certain opinions.
