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An incomplete review of research in technical innovation An introduction to this special section "The Business Side of Geophysics"

An introduction to this special section ‘The Business Side of Geophysics’

Apache Corporation, Houston, Texas, U.S.

Germán H. Curá

The DST Group, Houston, Texas, U.S.

Corresponding author: craig.jarchow@apachecorp.com

The first 20% of the full text of this article appears below.

The principal theme of this special section is technical innovation as viewed from an economic or "business" perspective. Technical innovation is the bread and butter of our profession, and it has been a constant source of renewal for the industries in which geophysics has played a role. It seems fitting, therefore, that a special section of The Leading Edge be devoted to it.

The special section begins with an interview of Daniel Yergin, chairman of Cambridge Energy Research Associates (CERA) and author of The Prize and The Commanding Heights. Yergin shares his perspective on the future of the oil industry and the role of geophysics in it. Following the interview are summaries of the Technology Forum and Roundtable organized by the SEG Research Committee and chaired by Yoram Shoham during SEG's 1999 Annual Meeting. The consensus of these sessions is that the oil industry no longer has a single standard business model for technology development. Considerable change is in store for geophysicists as different models are tried, modified, then adopted or discarded. Following the summaries is an extremely important article in which CERA's Marie Fagan presents one of the few studies that demonstrates in an objective and quantitative manner the economic impact of technology on financial performance. Roger Anderson of Columbia University offers an entrepreneurial case history profiling the birth and development of one of the companies he has founded, Bell Geospace. Don Paul of Chevron presents a framework for the drivers, issues, and implications of E&P in the "new economy." Finally, Schlumberger's Doug Elrod presents the business innovation that is the spec-data industry.

To introduce this special section about innovation, we offer an incomplete review of the literature on the topic. The review will be incomplete because it is heavily biased toward past and present research at the . . . [Full Text of this Article]