Innovation Environments

Abstract

At the Institute of Nuclear Science and Technology in Havana, during a seminar on science management held in 1999, the story of a scientific failure was shared. It involved beans — as is well known, the staple legume of Cuban cuisine. The issue was that the most widespread and socially accepted variety was experiencing a sharp decline in production due to a pest affecting the crops. Cuban biotechnologists, highly skilled and motivated, got to work and soon developed a new variety identical to the traditional one in all relevant parameters (color, size, texture, etc.) but immune to the pest. They brought the product to market with justified optimism. However, the genetically modified beans turned out to be a social failure. People said they “didn’t taste the same.” The scientists had conducted every possible technical test and controlled all scientifically relevant variables, but had forgotten the most obvious step: to let ordinary Cubans taste them. Social reception — with all its subjectivities and idiosyncrasies — is the ultimate judge of innovation. The story of the Cuban beans is a powerful parable about the limitations of the conventional understanding of innovation.