Tools for technical, business and consumer analyses: Expanding need to knowledge model

The Need to Knowledge Model is a static representation of the dynamic processes underlying the generation of technological innovations, involving three methodologies of scientific research, engineering development and industrial production. It is a framework through which government agencies and university faculty can plan, implement, manage and evaluation progress. Ensuring rigor and relevance requires much technical, marketing and consumer analyses, much of which falls outside the training and experience of academics and entrepreneurs. The paper describes the addition of nearly eighty analytic tools, chosen to represent the type of analyses required to optimize the probability of successfully reaching the marketplace and generating beneficial socioeconomic impacts.