Learn With Elaine: Inventing Post-it Notes

Through their private and social returns, innovations create a ripple of benefits that extend beyond businesses to society.

Econlife Blog

An Innovation That Stuck

Fact Questions:

1. Which large multinational corporation employed the people who created Post-it Notes?
2. Referring to the glue he accidentally developed, what did the Post-in inventor mean when he said, his adhesive was “a solution waiting for a problem to solve.”
3. How did a church songbook lead to the Post-it note?
4. Using the map at the end of the econlife post, identify cities that are the homes of innovation clusters for semiconductors, biology and chemistry, and computer science. 

The Economic Idea: Private and Social Return

Innovations can have a large impact through their private and social returns. Examples can include a canal, a ventilated pizza box, and Post-it Notes. Each creates a private and a social return.

A private return goes to the initial producers. While it primarily includes the profits that the developers receive, we could say it also extends to non-money benefits like prestige and similar inventions. For a canal, the builders got the toll money and moved onward to building better waterways. With a new pizza box, the sales would provide the private return.

From there though we have a social return. A social return can lead to a long list of benefits beyond the original inventor. It relates to individuals, to businesses, and to governments. With a canal, there is the transportation of people and goods that could extend across a country. For a ventilated pizza box, it’s the crunchy pizza crust that elevates enjoyment.

As for Post-it Notes, the private and social returns have been massive. That private return relates to the 50 billion Post-its annually sold by 3M. Then, all of those notes help each of us remember something.

So, whether thinking of a canal, a pizza box, or a Post-it Note, we can assume that there is a private and a social return.

Activity Goal: To consider the social return of innovations.

 Procedure: A pass around exercise.

1. On a small piece of paper, note a new good or service that society needs.
2. Pass the paper to a person on your right.
3. The recipient of the paper should note a potential social return that an individual, a business, or a government enjoys. It could relate to jobs, the environment, income, the quality of life, or some other benefits.
4. Then, again, pass the paper to someone else. On the same paper, note a second social return.
5. As a class, share these examples of the social return that innovations generate.
6. Use social return examples to explain how they can boost economic activity.