Innovation and convergence: expanding boundaries of chemical industry

Abstract

The chemical industry has been a major driver of industrialisation for the last hundred years, but during the past decade the pace of change has accelerated. This paper examines the major innovations in chemical industry and goes on to examine the important changes that diffusion of information technology, e-business, and new techniques of molecular design have brought about. Convergence inducing innovations are today a major driver of change, and the paper concludes by suggesting that chemical industry is at the beginning of a phase of megaconvergence, involving digital convergence, genetic convergence, and nanoconvergence.