Search

During the past few decades, the body of literature attributed to technology and innovation management (TIM) has significantly increased and diversified. To map the scientific evolution of this subject, we analysed more than 12,000 articles published between 2000 and 2014. We used a hybrid similarity measure combining bibliographic coupling and textual information to create bibliometric networks and to cluster the literature on TIM. Compared with prior bibliometric studies in the field, we examined a larger data sample, analysed the most recent publications, and identified the latest research fronts. Conclusively, we illustrated in a flowchart the evolution of the TIM landscape during five three-year periods. In this article, we describe in detail six latest research fronts and their evolution. Furthermore, we discuss the thematic differences of TIM specialty journals in contrast to strategic management journals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technology push and market pull innovation strategies are playing an important role for the effective management of ideas, technologies, and trends. The coexistence of these two approaches led to many debates and the focus switched several times from putting more effort into technology push aspects to fostering market pull approaches in the last decades. Still, there is no in-depth exploration of the interface of technology push and market pull and only few conceptual models are dealing with the connection between technology push and market pull in particular. Therefore, this study puts an exploratory focus on the innovation management processes of a global outdoor manufacturer with a special emphasis on the interface between technology push and market pull. From the case findings and our literature we conceptualise a non-linear innovation model that systematically integrates market pull and technology push activities. The model was tested for its practical applicability by reflecting it against the case company's organisational capabilities. Further research implications are discussed as well as implications for the management of the innovation process in practice, which highlights especially the importance of an innovation competence team. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The open innovation paradigm has created opportunities for the emergence of new actors to provide support for open innovation. It is acknowledged that knowledge creation is pivotal to innovation, but this has yet to be discussed in the context of open innovation intermediation. This paper based on a longitudinal study of SAFER, a traffic and vehicle safety research centre in Sweden, explores the role of an actor whose objective is to support joint knowledge creation in open innovation. Theoretical models of knowledge creation are used in the analysis and the identified activities go beyond intermediation, and include peer collaboration and mobilisation of a collective strategic body. These activities are fundamental to an open innovation arena - here introduced as a new type of actor. The paper challenges the established focal firm perspective in open innovation and introduces the open innovation arena to underline knowledge creation among peers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study uses the new global patent map developed by Kay et al. (2014) to reflect the patenting activity of Spain together with the activity of the Basque Country, a highly industrialised region in Spain, for the time interval 2000-2006. The global patent map reflects the technology categories where a patent could be categorised according to the international patent classification (IPC) system, in addition to the degree of similarity among different IPCs, determined by using the citing-to-cited relationships as bonds between categories. An overlay method has been developed to compare, on the one hand, the patenting activity in Spain and the Basque Country and a display of the most important technology sectors and; on the other, the selection of a technology sector and an analysis of technology transfer in both regions through different IPCs to compare them and determine the possible technological sources remaining for development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While theories on innovation management and strategy has often focused on teaching strategists how to promote change endogenously, by taking the role of 'innovation-makers', it should be recognised that a single firm is often forced to act as an 'innovation-taker', receiving rather than driving innovations generated exogenously. The effect of external change on a firm's strategy is even more dramatic whenever change is shaped as a discontinuity. This study aims at deepening the understanding on the effect of exogenous discontinuous innovation, by investigating if and how it affects a firm's business model and its resources, competencies and capabilities (R&C&C) endowment. In addition, light is shed on the relationship between these two models under external discontinuity. The findings reveal that an exogenous discontinuous innovation acts first on the business model parameters of value proposition and financial configuration; in turn, the firm aligns its key resources, key activities, key partners and key dynamic capabilities to the emerging context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the corporate landscape, some firms benefit from open innovation whereas others gain more advantage from a closed innovation model. Why do some firms benefit more than others from openness? A firm's strategy, which includes market and innovation orientation as well as internal structures and processes, is likely to be indicative of an adequate degree of firm openness and a well-considered selection of open innovation approaches. By analysing 25 firms according to three proactive strategy archetypes of innovation management, we identified distinctive behaviours regarding open and closed innovation activities. The three archetypes present an adequate degree of openness, adjusted to each archetype's strategic characteristics. Innovation managers can learn from this study how to skilfully link innovation models with each other as well as which degree of firm openness may be beneficial in order to reach a desired level of innovation performance. Furthermore, they can understand which open innovation activities are characteristic of a specific proactive strategy archetype of innovation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms increasingly organise their innovation activities in networked environments, including specific models such as supplier-network innovation, coopetition, or open innovation with a large set of stakeholders. These types of business and network models for innovation are often discussed from one of two main approaches - the strategic or the structural. The strategic approach examines the focus and logic of innovation in networks, and the structural approach analyses the network position and the related value creation and capture possibilities of a focal actor related to the position. In this study, these two approaches are combined in the attempt to provide an overview of this increasingly important topic in innovation management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

For more than ten years, the French State and administrative regions have pursued economic development policies that stimulate all forms of innovation and encourage strategic market alliances of the economic stakeholders of a region. These 'cluster' policies aim to create ecosystems that are conducive to innovation and promote the emergence of collaborative organisations. Among these innovation clusters, we are concerned with those in the healthcare field pertaining to ageing and autonomy. Business models and action plans for these collaborative organisations are neither easy to define nor easy to stabilise and reinforce, because of the diversity of stakeholders with multiple expectations involved. This paper presents an application of the FAcT-Mirror method in the Sol'iage (http://www.soliage.com/english-version/) innovation cluster during its development stage. We demonstrate that the FAcT-Mirror method is particularly efficient and effective during the process of transformation from the emerging stage (stage of intention) to the development stage (stage of action) for a healthcare cluster to collectively produce common tools (definitions, strategy, working groups, and action plans). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The evidence about how political ties affect new product development in Chinese firms remains inconclusive. This article joins this debate by integrating innovation generation and appropriation into a unifying framework, and empirically examining the relationships among political ties, new product innovation advantage, and new product performance. Survey results from 272 Chinese firms show that in the innovation-generation stage, political ties affect new product innovation advantage through acquisitive and experimental learning benefits. Differently, in the innovation-appropriation stage, political ties function as a social appropriability regime that enhances the effect of new product innovation advantage on new product performance. Therefore, political ties play dual roles in Chinese firms' new product development. We also suggest notable cautions regarding their possible dark side effects. Implications and future research directions are provided in the end. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technological entrepreneurship concerns the transformation of potentially viable technological opportunities into profitable businesses. Technological entrepreneurship is recognised as a key driver of successful technological innovation. In addition, matching technological opportunities with local market needs is a characteristic feature of Chinese technology firms' catch-up and innovation potential. However, extant research on technology and innovation management has yet to fully include entrepreneurship insights in the study of innovation, especially in Chinese firms. With this aim, the paper identifies and investigates the relationships between a number of internal and external factors and technological entrepreneurship. Using a multi-disciplinary and multi-level literature review and findings collected through case studies and interviews in 74 Guangdong technology firms, the paper presents possible explanations concerning the relationship explored and discusses their theoretical and practical relevance, with particular reference to the role of support policies, IPR enforcement and personal relationships. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper gives various indications of market and technology diversification as well as of global market and technology convergence (rather than specialisation) in the context of management, legal and economic convergence. The results show that different countries focus on a wider but increasingly similar set of markets for R&D outputs in the form of patents, which implies increasing intra-national market diversification and inter-national market convergence. The results also show that different countries focus on a wider but (to some extent) increasingly similar set of technologies that are patented, which implies increasing intra-national technology diversification and inter-national technology convergence. In addition, intellectual property (IP) legal convergence takes place as newly industrialised countries (NICs) have strengthened their IP regimes in compliance with TRIPS and subsequently do so in the context of their indigenous innovation policies. Asian NICs have significantly increased their international patenting and supply of patented inventions. Altogether, this puts new demands across countries on multinational technology and innovation management skills, and in particular multinational IP management skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on how to boost innovation by stimulating the emergence of joint R&D projects within cluster initiatives. Based on empirical studies on R&D-oriented cluster initiatives, it sheds light on cluster R&D management, a key but hardly ever studied issue, and explains how cluster managers attempt to stimulate and to intermediate innovation by applying three central tactics, possibly enriched by other ex ante and ex post peripheral tactics. Drawing on these empirical results, tested on 15 cluster managers, the article then illustrates that the encompassing model of upstream innovation intermediation process proposed by Sieg et al. (2010) addresses in fact only one among the several possible forms of such processes. Then, splitting Noteboom's notion of 'optimal cognitive distance' into two different dimensions, it shows that this refined notion of cognitive proximity/distance between actors helps understand such a diversity of innovation intermediation processes and their varied efficiencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study focuses on value creation and capture in innovation ecosystems. It presents and discusses the findings from a qualitative, comparative case study on two European-led innovation ecosystems from the ICT and aerospace and defence sectors. The purpose of the research is to explore the tangible and intangible mechanisms related to how leading firms may facilitate value creation and capture in this context. In particular, we focus on mechanisms related to the building phase to help attract and gather relevant stakeholders, and on the management phase to help maintain and realise the business goals of all ecosystem participants. We also discuss the differences between the case industries concerning the effectiveness and usage of such mechanisms. Overall, the research findings provide new evidence on the facilitating initiatives, underlying mechanisms and structures that are related to the leading firms' orchestration of innovation ecosystems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores different transition paths firms can take to become product service system (PSS) innovators. Applying the dynamic capability theory, we study how three firms, respectively, a product innovator, a service innovator and a new venture, have developed PSS innovations in the mobility sector (car2go by Daimler AG, Hertz on Demand by The Hertz Corporation and Better Place). Based on semi-structured qualitative interviews with project managers, we propose a framework that incorporates three major transition paths. We derive propositions for a necessary capability set and the sequence of necessary capabilities along the innovation process. Our results indicate that the capabilities for developing and operating the technical network infrastructure are particularly relevant for successful PSS innovators, wherefore those firms should internalise these. Moreover, we discuss different types of environmental gains that can be realised from PSS innovations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Offshore wind energy is considered to have tremendous potential for Germany's future electricity supply. Due to the technology's capital intensity, however, offshore wind energy has so far been considered the domain of large utilities. Municipal utilities on the contrary traditionally have strong ties to their community and conduct low risk business models at the regional and local level. Recently, however, German municipal utilities started to invest in offshore wind energy. Based on a series of interviews with municipal utility executives, the present study identifies two innovative business models and ten key drivers for municipal utilities' engagement in offshore wind energy. It is found that the new business models may have significant further potential and help to stimulate the German market. The present study contributes to the industry debate by identifying business model blueprints for offshore wind and to the academic debate by suggesting three generic types of business model innovation with different characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's high-tech industry has been regarded as a new driving force for national economic growth and industry restructuring over the next decade. Innovation is the most important activity in the high-tech industry. One critical area for improving innovation is to identify and overcome its barriers. This article reports on the perceptions of managers from a survey completed by 1,722 of China's high-tech enterprises on external and internal barriers to innovation in Zhejiang Province of China and how these barriers impact on the firms' innovation performance. Based on our findings, we have conceptualised innovation barriers into two groups: kinetic and static barriers. The implications from these findings for public policy and innovation management are discussed and remedies proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of user involvement has long been stressed in the innovation management literature. However, we argue that this literature does not take sufficient account to the employment and incorporation of users in innovation. Hence, we explore the role of incorporated users in innovation activities. The research was conducted in a business unit in a large medical technology company with long experience of employing and incorporating physicians and nurses in its new product development activities. Data were collected through a questionnaire and interviews with key individuals. The study reveals that the incorporation of users has an overall positive effect on innovation activities, but that this way of working also raises several managerial issues. The results show that incorporated users play several different roles in the unit - as user representatives, networkers, idea promoters and change agents. Based on our findings we propose managerial implications related to the incorporation of users. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Whereas there is a wealth of contributions on the topic of continuous innovation (CI) in firms, there is still a clear need for works addressing how the existing knowledge on combining various types of innovation with operational excellence and strategic flexibility in a fruitful manner. Any attempt to generate actionable knowledge about CI that at the same time lives up to the traditional academic requirements of rigor and relevance poses significant challenges to researchers, calling for a more comprehensive and multi-faceted methodological approach, attending to multiple evaluation criteria and possible revisions of research roles and processes. This paper aims to recommend how to produce CI actionable knowledge and to take the first steps in progressing from this form of knowledge to a universal theory of CI. In doing so, the paper calls for a 'continuous innovation' in the way CI research is accomplished, and aims at proposing some key building blocks and evaluation criteria of a basic framework able to overcome the pre-paradigmatic stage in which CI research seems to be stuck. Moreover, it presents four papers from the International CINet Conference held in 2007 at Göteborg (SE) and one from the 2010 Zürich Conference. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines which factors motivate small enterprises to realise product innovations and how these factors affect their innovation processes. In a multiple embedded case study of three small enterprises, 11 different innovation processes, both realised and unrealised, were discovered and analysed. Strategy, competition, profit, growth, source of innovation idea, innovation process size and novelty were not found to explain the motivation to innovate, but ten interdependent motivating factors did, of which four externally oriented factors were found conclusive for innovation to occur. The factors found, dealing with resource scarcity, technology and market uncertainty and risk, and cash flow, highly affected how the innovation processes were carried out. The findings further show that the need to maintain steady cash flow seems to be the overall motive for product innovation in small enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a globalised and knowledge-based economy, companies must innovate continuously. Recent studies suggest that companies create multiple types of innovation and should expand the boundaries of their knowledge-production processes to co-operate with external organisations for innovation. Extant empirical studies of relationships between internal and external innovation activities, R&D cooperation, and types of innovation in developed countries have yielded mixed results. As a prominent Asian newly industrialising economy (NIE), Hong Kong's innovation and technology management has rarely been studied. This study explores the innovation activities and performance of Hong Kong companies with operations in Guangdong. Using a survey - based on the community innovation survey 4 (CIS4) - of 492 companies, we have found that intramural and extramural R&D, acquisition of machinery, and R&D co-operation are important for product, process, organisational, or marketing innovation. A notable result is that market-related efforts play a key role in most innovation undertaken by firms under study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Product platforms are applied in order to increase the stability of the product architecture and to reap benefits of scale and scope. However, many firms face a dynamic environment with quickly changing market demands. In such an environment, firms may have to continuously renew and improve their product platforms to achieve desired flexibility. The modifications comprise two types of innovations, component as well as architectural innovations. Combining these types to simultaneously achieve stability and strategic flexibility demands continuous innovation capability. This paper provides a viable approach to coordinate architectural and component innovations. The paper is based on a case study of an international truck manufacturer. Two major issues, decision-making and the management of knowledge, stand out as important for realising continuous innovation and improvement of product platforms. Moreover, product platform management needs to consider modularity and its related economies of substitution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research explores supply chain competitiveness and dynamic capabilities. It examines a pilot group of Australian supply chain organisations to understand the importance of dynamic capability in building innovation capacity for competitive advantage, and the concept of adopting a strategic approach to supply chain relationship building. A supply chain is after all a group of intra and interorganisational relationships delivering demand to end-users. This exploratory study confirms a positive relationship between the variables indicating both a strategic intent to develop relational capability, and very strong predictive linkages between the importance placed on developing supply chain dynamic capability and achieving supply chain innovation capacity as a competitive advantage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little research on HRM practices in knowledge-intensive firms (KIFs), especially in comparison to that conducted in traditional production environments. Whether such HRM practices are appropriate for KIFs, particularly ones that differentiate themselves on their ability to innovate, is the basis of this research. The study investigates the HRM practices being used by four innovative firms: two KIFs and two traditional production companies. The findings suggest that there are some similarities between the HRM practices of the case firms, but there are also important differences. Specifically, the KIFs emphasise use of selection criteria and processes that secure a workforce with a desire for challenging work and the ability to work collaboratively. The KIFs are also more likely to provide a breadth of training and development opportunities for teams and individuals, to make extensive use of performance management systems, and to utilise a range of strategies to encourage and reward innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research suggests that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can benefit from network collaboration by enhancing opportunities for innovation. Managing the necessary collaboration to benefit from network participation may however be particularly challenging for SMEs due to their size and their inherent shortage of resources. In this paper, we propose that human resource management (HRM) practices may provide a means by which SMEs can increase their innovation capacity through network collaboration. Following a brief presentation of the relevant literature on networks, and innovation in networks in particular, and HRM, we analyse and evaluate the potential applicability of existing models for supporting innovation in SMEs participating in networks. Finally, we propose several lines of inquiry arising from our analysis that provide directions for future research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development and installation of new process equipment in production plants typically requires strong collaboration among a process firm and various equipment suppliers. While incentives to collaborate often are strong, close collaboration also poses significant problems, throughout the lifecycle of process equipment. The purpose of this article is to explore the problems and opportunities faced by process firms and their equipment suppliers throughout the lifecycle stages of collaborative development projects. This paper combines literature on open innovation, collaborative development and buyer-supplier relationships. Empirically, we draw on a large number of interviews in a dual case study of two process firms. Our results show that strong collaboration is neither positive nor negative in general. Rather, opportunities, problems, and collaboration intensity are strongly contingent on the specific stage in the lifecycle of process equipment. Our findings underscore the managerial and theoretical importance of a lifecycle perspective on the development of process equipment, since significant overlaps and interconnections exist across different stages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on innovation development in small enterprises. It explores what kinds of innovations have been developed in small enterprises and what is the diversity of innovation types. In addition, this paper examines the features characterising the journey of a small enterprise from a non-innovator to a diversified innovator. The empirical evidence is based on quantitative data gathered through an e-mail questionnaire, which yielded 733 qualified responses from the representatives of Finnish small enterprises with fewer than 50 employees. The results suggest that the degree of innovation capabilities, R&D investments and profitability are associated with the diversity of developed innovation types. The findings display four alternative routes when a small enterprise moves from a non-innovator to a diversified innovator. Applying these results will provide more specific questions for studying innovation development in the smallest enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this article is to develop an analytical framework for studying processes such as continuous innovation and business development in high-tech SME clusters that transcends the traditional qualitative-quantitative divide. The article's key contribution is the conceptual integration of four existing and well-recognised but separate approaches to studying events, processes, and change, namely change-point analysis (CPA), event-history analysis (EHA), critical-incident technique (CIT), and sequence analysis (SA) into a single design framework which is especially useful for studying complex and long-term or ongoing processes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is little empirical research on the relational capabilities and competences in supply chain relationships, and the important links that exist between relational capabilities, competences and supply chain innovation. This study addresses some of that knowledge gap gained through a case study of the Australian freight services sector. Findings suggest that different competences developed by supply chain participants support different ways to enable operational effectiveness. Road freight businesses should acquire knowledge of how to select and manage inter-firm relationships that provide the greatest benefit, acquiring competences that either improve their current capabilities or assist them to explore strategies that ensure incremental innovation and supply chain performance objectives are met. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examines how a company can generate innovation opportunities by exploring and absorbing customer knowledge. The exploration can be performed via an in-depth or broad search for resources beyond organisational boundaries. Salespeople are an essential channel for an in-depth search in relation to customers, since salespeople possess rich knowledge of the customers. In order to be useful, such knowledge has to be absorbed in the company. Most of the literature on absorptive capacity has focused on R&D, while less focus has been placed on studying the role of individuals in the development of integrative practices. This paper demonstrates how a community of practice can enable organisations to move from potential absorptive capacity to realised absorptive capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Building on a volume of previous work on continuous improvement (CI) in the supply chain based on the continuous improvement in manufacturing activity (CIMA) model, this paper extends earlier work by examining the influences of firm size CI. Findings of this study provide support for earlier studies, which held that firm size generally has little influence on CI innovation activity. However, this study provides a finer grained analysis of the relationship between firm size and both the manner in which CI is undertaken and the benefits flowing from CI. This study reinforces previous evidence that management in organisations should give serious consideration to strategies which enhance the spread of CI activities throughout their organisations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The literature on disruptive technologies has previously stated that those innovations often emerge in low-end segments or in new markets and as the performance improves it eventually displaces the old technology. This article aims to explain how and why a technology may prosper in high-end or mainstream markets despite its initially lower performance and does so through three in-depth case studies. The findings suggest that those technologies may compensate the inferior performance by simplifying and removing work for customers. For instance, digital imaging emerged in high-end segments since these customers were willing to trade-off the initially lower image quality in order to remove the usage of film. Based upon these results, the paper concludes that the literature on disruptive technologies needs to maintain a more nuanced view of value and how it is created and distributed inside the customer's organisation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Users can be a prolific source of innovation. Nonetheless, many firms remain reluctant to integrate users into new product development. This is partly attributable to an insufficient understanding of ways in which firms can influence user activity to reap its benefits while reducing potentially adverse side-effects. This paper investigates by which instruments firms can affect the cost and benefit expectations that users attach to innovation activities and thereby influence user activity in terms of its level and focus. The analysis relies on prior empirical findings on purposive user guidance by manufacturers. We conclude that companies can indeed affect user activity and advance propositions on optimal strategies. Our findings can inform scholarly debate on the contingency factors of user innovation activity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is indisputably one of the most important strategic and operational levers available to managers for creating competitive advantage. Recent studies suggest that there remains a serious disconnect between what firms are hoping for, and what they, in fact, are reaping from their investments in innovation. Conventional approaches to performance measurement have as yet had little impact in the area of innovation management. The purpose of the research reported in this paper has been to address some of the more pertinent of the many questions raised by innovation practitioners and managers today concerning the measurement of innovation performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests a process to help virtual teams define their requirements and set up their mix of Web 2.0 tools. It is based on four steps: definition of the requirements of an aided competence management for virtual team building system (aided CMVTB system) and formulation of its functions, tools' identification, evaluation of their response to each function and, as a consequence, designation of the Web 2.0 tools which are most correlated. The process has been applied to the requirements in terms of project virtual teams. The outcomes are compared to the actual use and evaluation of the Web 2.0 tools by 34 marketing managers who are used to working with virtual teams and work in large companies with over 5,000 employees. The final section of this paper deals with managerial recommendations. It contains the concluding remarks and perspectives for future work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innovation is widely recognised as an appropriate 'tool' to gain competitiveness and it is often defined as an idea, process, service, product, etc., that is characterised as being new and commercially accepted. The description of the innovation process as a sequence of tasks is not new; but there is still no easy way to materialise these processes in the industry. Various authors have defined modelling as the most appropriate way to achieve this purpose. This paper compiles and summarises all of the most relevant models published during the last three decades. It also identifies their key factors, which are included in a questionnaire that will be used amongst relevant industrial firms in the Basque country in order to characterise a new innovation model. The originality of this work will be the joint development and validation of a new innovation model, suited to actual needs, flexible and customised to industrial companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Services are playing an increasingly important role in modern economies. But services and innovations in services are not only a phenomenon in the service sectors, they also occur in the manufacturing industry. Services in the manufacturing industry are product-related services which are offered to customers together with the main products as an integrated solution. Based on firm level data from the European Manufacturing Survey 2006 for Germany, this paper explores the empirical relevance of product-related services and service innovations for manufacturing enterprises. The paper empirically analyses which types of traditional and advanced services manufacturing firms offer to their customers. Furthermore, it is shown that product-related services and service innovations significantly contribute to the sales of manufacturing firms. Using a multivariate regression model, it can be shown that services are particularly important for manufacturers of complex products and single unit or small batch size manufacturers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The training programme of European Technological Institute of Entrepreneurship and Management (ITEEM), a French graduate engineering school, includes a design and achievement project of product/service for an enterprise achieved by a team of five students. An original creative and innovative approach is presented. Innovation has a big role in the ITEEM programme, because the objective is to train future entrepreneurs in the field of high technology. Each project is followed by a lecturer during the whole process; one of his/her mission is to bring methodological supports for innovation. So, the students have a practical experience of innovative solutions research on a real problematic, and the enterprise discovers new possibilities to develop innovative solutions. By experience, all types of enterprises are interested, but our target is rather the SME (small and medium enterprise) that cannot take on engineers, due to their wage costs. But this approach has also been used in design projects for large enterprises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bringing successful innovative products to the market is in many cases a balance between targeted innovation and the reuse of existing technology. If this integration fails designers also need to look for innovative solutions at the last minute to integrate new and old parts. To avoid this 'emergency' innovation, designers need to understand how different parts of a product are connected to each other and how changes to one component affect other components. This paper reports on a method to predict how change propagates through existing products to assess the risk of innovation. A product is represented as a square matrix and the pair wise dependencies between components are captured with likelihood and impact values, such that indirect risk can be calculated. Using various graphic representations of the structure of the product, designers can explore dependencies between components and avoid design choices that might force them to change highly connected parts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Firms look for procuring a sustainable advantage over their competitors. Therefore, they should be both operationally and strategically efficient. However, as firms work with other companies, they are under threats of misunderstanding, inefficiency, difficult synchronisations, etc. These threats will be transformed into real business traps. In this paper, authors propose a global framework which focuses on collaborative new product development (NPD) projects. The ultimate goal is to minimise harmful potential consequences of collaborations. This framework emphasises critical characteristics of any collaboration among partners. It helps users to have a clearer understanding of the overall environment of such projects. This understanding leads not only managers towards a better definition of their strategy but also guides them to acquire a more resourceful operational efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, we present a methodology and a working paradigm, based on TRIZ theory, specifically conceived for SMEs that are not able to face the problem of intellectual property management (IPM) in an autonomous way. As a first step, we introduce the competences and possible company structure to manage and protect intellectual property (IP) by means of patents and trademarks; then we describe the methodologies and the tools, which can be used for IPM, such as those derived from TRIZ. Finally, we describe a case study which refers to a typical example of know-how transfer from a technological leading sector to the large production of consumable products showing the use of considered TRIZ tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Successful innovations depend upon what input is given to the development process. That input is developed in the early stage of innovation in which neither problems nor goals are well-defined (Simon, 1973; Bayazit, 2004). The presented research focuses on how innovators' requirements towards software tools supporting early-stage innovation can be met by suitable working environments. Allan (2007) describes early-stage innovation as a social process where individuals and groups work together in a collaborative way. This paper examines how such collaborative work can be encouraged by applying game dynamics to early-stage innovation processes. The game dynamics examined are implemented in an integrated software solution designed to support innovators with getting connected to the right people, producing ideas based on exploring knowledge and evaluating them to achieve the goal of developing successful innovations. The presented approach is based on the research carried out by the European Community funded Integrated Project Laboranova. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presented model which is developed in a European project allows project management teams to assess the organisational maturity to integrate new practices under structural or technological change. Maturity for change is defined here as workforce capability to operate effectively in transformed processes. This methodology is addressed to tackle organisational readiness to fulfil business objectives through technological and structural improvements. The tool integrates a set of evaluations structured in three main steps defined as maturity levels. The two first levels 'change impact mapping' and 'As Is and To-Be state comparison' allow identifying departments, organisational actors impacted and introduce evaluations characterising change in processes. The third level 'key factors evaluation' provides needed resources estimation and introduces new work process support. The innovative feature of this model is to integrate technical and human capability for organisational development. This paper brings a practical resource in process design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the early design phases of innovative projects. More precisely, the question of the innovation opportunities development and management is addressed here, starting from a theoretical model and methodology, until precise tool perspectives. The key elements of our approach are the potential technology concept (PTC) multi-input model and the C-K theory. Our PTC model is based on three dimensions (concept, technology and potential) and highlights the need of interactions between them regarding strategic and operational levels. Starting from the analysis of these three dimensions, different opportunities for the innovation are identified. In order to develop every identified opportunity, the three dimensions have to be explored with specific workshops and the C-K theory resulting in a tree diagram. The paper presents also tool perspectives dedicated to structure the preliminary exchanges among all stakeholders using criteria to consolidate new ideas. Two case studies are finally proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Learning to manage innovation is essentially about developing and modifying capability to search, select and implement and being able to repeat the trick. Developing 'routines' which allow for regular innovative activity is central to capability building - but the paradox is that as the firm routinises so its ability to cope with the unexpected diminishes. Successful innovating organisations also require the ability to review those routines and extend or change them. We suggest that discontinuous innovation highlights this problem of dynamic capability in that it forces firms to learn new approaches and let go of old ones around the core search, select and implement questions. In this paper, we explore the challenge of extending and replacing routines for 'selection' in the face of discontinuous challenges and highlight the problems of 'bounded space' within which both explore and exploit routines operate but which are insufficient to cope with challenges in discontinuity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the influence of the innovation process on organisational learning. To achieve this goal, we decompose innovation into two components, innovativeness and the capacity to innovate. This paper proposes theoretically the concept of Operative Real Options (OROs) and empirically seeks to measure their influence on the relationship between innovation and organisational learning. Using empirical data gathered from 204 Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) in European firms, the findings support the hypothesis that innovation and its two components improve the learning process in the organisation. However, we do not find support for the hypothesis that OROs moderate the relation between innovation and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper investigates which risks characterise radical innovation projects. In-dept case studies were carried out via interviews and a questionnaire. The risk concept applied in this study includes three dimensions: certainty, controllability and impact. Three structural or unambiguous risks were found: new product performance according to specification, reliability of suppliers and new product adoption by consumers. The incidental or ambiguous risks that were found relate to: internal organisation and project management. These results can provide guidance for project teams and innovation managers regarding issues they must seek to tick off early and issues that continuously require team and management attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper considers the implications of the growing trend for Engineer-To-Order (ETO) companies to engage in projects that involve not just the design and manufacture of capital plant and equipment, but also responsibility for downstream aspects of the project such as operations, maintenance and service delivery. These types of long-term, service-focused projects introduce an added dimension of complexity to the project that stems from a proliferation of stakeholders and multiple customers within the project. Drawing on three detailed case studies of projects with a long-term, service focus, this paper explores the problems facing ETO companies and their project managers in terms of identifying who the critical customer is at any particular stage of the project and highlights some implications for the management of the design and innovation process in such ETO projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we develop a list of critical factors for knowledge management (KM), using different theoretical frameworks. We identified four elements which were common to most models: management promotion, infrastructure, strategy and evaluation. Conducting four case studies from firms in the chemical industry allowed us to compare our factors with empirical data. We found that the involvement of top management is crucial for the implementation of knowledge management, whereas evaluation seems to be less important. In all cases, knowledge management was seen as a continuous development process. However, one of our most interesting findings is that an incentive programme seems to be necessary for a successful implementation of KM in the culture and processes of an organisation. Looking at the development of KM systems over time, we observed a conversion of all four analysed cases at the process level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper introduces a process for brainstorming new product ideas and business concepts. The developed process utilises a group support system. It aims to enhance the innovation process and the transfer of knowledge inside a company by offering effective means for cooperation. The paper reports the experiences and findings of using the developed process in business cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]