Solar Energy Windows and Smart IR Switchable Building Technologies

The three building envelope functions with the largest impact on the energy usage are illumination, energy flux and energy production. In general, these three functions are addressed separately in the building design. A step change toward a zero-energy building can be achieved with a glazing system that combines these three functions and their control into a single unit. In particular, significant value could be realized if illumination into the building is dynamically controlled such that it occurs during periods of low load on the grid (e.g., morning) to augment illumination supplied by interior lights and then to have that same light diverted to PV energy production and the thermal energy rejected during periods of high load on the grid. The objective of this project is to investigate the feasibility of a glazing unit design that integrates these three key functions (illumination and energy flux control, and power production) into a single module

The importance of the raw idea in innovation: Testing the sow’s ear hypothesis

How important is the original conception of an idea-the "raw" ideato an innovation's success? In this article, the authors explore whether raw ideas judged as "better" fare better in the market and also determine the strength of that relationship. The empirical context is Quirky.com, a community-driven product development company for household consumer products. The data include descriptions of the raw ideas as originally proposed, the ultimate product designs that resulted from those ideas, and sales figures. In addition, they contain two measures of idea quality: those from online consumer panelists and those from expert evaluators. The authors note the following findings: First, online consumer panels are a better way to determine a "good" idea than are ratings by experts. Second, predictions with samples as small as 20 consumers are reliable. Third, there is a stronger predictive link between raw ideas and consumers' purchase intent of final product designs than there is between those intentions and market outcomes. Fourth, the commercial importance of the raw idea is large, with ideas one standard deviation better translating to an approximately 50% increase in sales rate

The Effects of Sensitization and Habituation in Durable Goods Markets

We develop a model to study the impact of changes in price sensitivity on the firm as it introduces multiple generations of a durable product where unit costs are a convex function of quality. We incorporate the psychological processes of sensitization and habituation into a model of discretionary purchasing of replacement products motivated by past experience. When price sensitivity decreases with each purchase (sensitization), the myopic firm offers a higher quality product at a much higher price with each generation. When price sensitivity increases with each purchase (habituation), the myopic firm engages in price skimming. When sensitization is followed by habituation, the myopic firm eventually provides higher quality than the market is willing to pay for, leading to a steep drop-off in sales and profits. The actions of the forward-looking firm depend on the discount rate. A firm with a low discount rate builds its customer base before offering a higher quality and higher priced product. In contrast, a firm with a high discount rate quickly increases price and quality following the same path to falling profits of the myopic firm. These results provide insight into the firm and consumer behaviors underlying the phenomenon of 'performance oversupply' identified in the innovation literature