Study on influence of internet usage on successful inventors

Abstract

Innovation has been the driving force of development of modern world. Countries those who have technological and organizational capacities in innovating are continually growing while others are stagnating. Therefore, the dynamism of the national innovation system of a country has become the central issue of their technological, economical and social performances in the modern world. On the other hand, Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) were underwent a rapid development. Everywhere in the world, ever-advancing digital technology is performing a revolutionary role in converting world into a global village. With the launch of World Wide Web (WWW) the world became an open source of information and at present it is playing a vital role in knowledge creation and transformation and more importantly, it is being used in expanding people’s capabilities to do valued activities. Sri Lanka being a developing country shows similar behavior similar to other developing countries where a greater proportion of the inventive community to be independent inventors. The independent inventors by nature carries a high risk been in success leading to have a immature innovation system.Internet being the largest knowledgebase on the earth and the innovation beig the building knowledge and capabilities, it can be used to develop or enhance the success level of those independent inventors. The figures of the number of internet users and the recorded number of patent applications suggests that there can be a direct relationship between two, it has never been tested. This study evaluated the socio-demographic, technological and internet usage profiles of the randomly selected 200 independent inventors in Sri Lanka and examined how these factor are interrelated and how they can be used to influence the success. Though internet can be used to influence the inventive actions,the results derived from the research suggests that it has never been used for its maximum potential towards the success of the inventive community but for the set of common purposes.The demographic features are the factors that are influencing the usage of internet of the inevtors that the technological factors. In order to bring the success level up,there is a greater amount of responsibility on the hands of local authorities who are responsible where they have to be be proactive and should guide the independent inventors in using the internet productively where it matters for the development of the country.