This article provides a comprehensive guide to answering the IELTS reading passage, “A Comparative Study of Innovation Practices in Business.” We will delve into each question type, offering detailed answers and explanations to enhance your comprehension and improve your IELTS reading score.
Matching Experts to Theories (Questions 1-7)
This question type requires you to match specific theories about innovation to a list of experts (A-E). The answers are found by carefully scanning the passage for mentions of each expert and understanding their viewpoints.
| Question | Answer | Expert | Location in Passage | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. A business cannot rely on one successful innovation. | C | Utterback | Paragraph 4 | Utterback’s concept of “dominant design” explains how initial innovation success is often followed by competitors copying the product or service. Continuous innovation is therefore crucial for sustained success. |
| 2. A group approach effectively generates innovation. | D | Hargadon and Sutton | Paragraph 9 | Hargadon and Sutton emphasize the importance of teams for capturing, sharing, and nurturing ideas, making a group approach essential for innovation. |
| 3. A culture accepting failure fosters employee creativity. | E | Kahn and Hirshhorn | Paragraph 11 | Kahn and Hirshhorn highlight the importance of psychological safety for creativity. A culture that tolerates failure allows employees to take risks and be more innovative. |
| 4. Radical innovations yield higher returns than minor changes. | B | Kim and Mauborgne | Paragraph 3 | Kim and Mauborgne’s research demonstrates that while incremental changes contribute to revenue, breakthrough innovations generate a significantly larger percentage of profits. |
| 5. Structured innovation processes lead to greater business success. | D | Hargadon and Sutton | Paragraph 5 | Hargadon and Sutton advocate for systematized innovation processes, linking them to increased resource allocation for development and overall company success. |
| 6. Innovation combines a new idea with business potential. | A | Afuah | Paragraph 3 | Afuah defines innovation as “invention plus commercialization,” emphasizing the necessity of combining a novel idea with market viability. |
| 7. Focusing solely on client needs can hinder broader development. | C | Utterback | Paragraph 6 | Utterback warns that an excessive focus on customer demands can lead companies to overlook crucial evolutionary changes and broader market opportunities. |
Completing Sentences (Questions 8-14)
This section requires you to complete sentences with appropriate endings (A-I). The correct ending will logically complete the sentence based on information from the passage.
| Question | Answer | Sentence Ending | Location in Passage | Explanation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 8. Developing an organized innovation process… | E | …may give rise to a lengthy period between the initial concept and launch. | Paragraph 7 | The passage discusses the significant resources and time required to test, develop, and launch new innovations. |
| 9. A difficult issue in innovation… | G | …can be to work out the saleability of a future product. | Paragraph 7 | Determining market viability and the potential success of a product is presented as a major challenge in the innovation process. |
| 10. Maintaining a leading business position… | B | …must put time and money into innovation. | Paragraph 7 | The passage emphasizes the need for continuous innovation and significant investment to remain competitive. |
| 11. A different approach to achieving innovation… | I | …might involve collaboration with another company with particular expertise. | Not explicitly stated, but inferred | While not directly stated, the passage implies that different approaches exist, and collaboration could be one way to access specialized knowledge or resources. Collaboration is a common practice in business innovation. |
| 12. Getting staff to generate new ideas… | C | …can be a very cost-effective way of achieving innovation. | Paragraph 7, Paragraph 12 | Empowering employees to innovate can be more efficient and less costly than relying solely on external research and development. |
| 13. A recommendation for companies already innovating… | H | …would be to put more money into the analysis of customer demand. | Paragraph 6 | The passage suggests that companies benefit from understanding customer needs but may need to invest more in analyzing those demands for sustained innovation. |
| 14. The problem experienced by companies in the study… | F | …could be attributed to an unwillingness to accept the risk. | Paragraph 12 | The passage identifies a low tolerance for risk among employees and decision-making committees as a key obstacle to innovation. |
Conclusion
By understanding the different question types and utilizing the provided answers and explanations, you can significantly improve your ability to tackle the “A Comparative Study of Innovative Practices in Business” IELTS reading passage. Remember to practice actively and focus on identifying key information within the text.
