This paper presents an exploratory study on the characteristics of inventive activities as captured on the basis of the analysis of a data-set of R&D awards. Our data source is the "R&D 100 Awards" competition organized by the journal Research and Development. Since 1963, the magazine has been awarding this prize to 100 most technologically significant new products available for sale or licensing in the year preceding the judgment. Our econometric exercises is aimed at unravelling the connections between Schumpeterian patterns of innovation and the generation of innovative breakthroughs (as captured by the R&D awards). Our main results suggest that technological breakthroughs seems more likely to emergence in ‘turbulent’, Schumpeter Mark I types of context, rather than in more stable Schumpeter Mark II environments. Moreover, there appears to be no significant differences between Schumpeter Mark I and Schumpeter Mark II regimes in terms of propensities to patent breakthrough innovations.