A central part of the innovation process concerns the way firms go about organizing search for new ideas that have commercial potential. New models of innovation have suggested that many innovative firms have changed the way they search for new ideas, adopting open search strategies that involve the use of a wide range of external actors and sources to help them achieve and sustain innovation. Using a large-scale sample of industrial firms, this paper links search strategy to innovative performance, finding that searching widely and deeply is curvilinearly (taking an inverted U-shape) related to performance. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

/pdf/open-for-innovation-the-role-of-openness-in-explaining-2llii2909h.pdf

Open for innovation: the role of openness in explaining innovation performance among U.K. manufacturing firms

Who co-operates for innovation, and why: An empirical analysis

Innovation is not a new phenomenon. Arguably, it is as old as mankind itself. However, in spite of its obvious importance, innovation has not always got the scholarly attention it deserves. This is now rapidly changing, however. As shown in the paper, research on the role of innovation economic and social change has proliferated in recent years, particularly within the social sciences, and often with a bent towards cross-disciplinarity. It is argued that this reflects the fact that no single discipline deals with all aspects of innovation, and that in order to get a comprehensive overview of the role played by innovation in social and economic change, a cross-disciplinary perspective is a must. The purpose of the paper is to provide the reader with a guide to this rapidly expanding literature. In doing so it draws on larger collective effort financed by the European Commission (the TEARI project, see http://tikpc51.uio.no/teari/teari.htm ), one of the outputs of which will emerge as Oxford Handbook of Innovation, edited by Jan Fagerberg, David Mowery and Richard R. Nelson. 2

/pdf/innovation-a-guide-to-the-literature-5bwa4bp4fn.pdf

Innovation: A Guide to the Literature

This paper draws together knowledge from a variety of fields to propose that innovation management can be viewed as a form of organisational capability. Excellent companies invest and nurture this capability, from which they execute effective innovation processes, leading to innovations in new product, services and processes, and superior business performance results. An extensive review of the literature on innovation management, along with a case study of Cisco Systems, develops a conceptual model of the firm as an innovation engine. This new operating model sees substantial investment in innovation capability as the primary engine for wealth creation, rather than the possession of physical assets. Building on the dynamic capabilities literature, an "innovation capability" construct is proposed with seven elements. These are vision and strategy, harnessing the competence base, organisational intelligence, creativity and idea management, organisational structures and systems, culture and climate, and management of technology.

Developing innovation capability in organisations: a dynamic capabilities approach

Measurement of the process of innovation is critical for both practitioners and academics, yet the literature is characterized by a diversity of approaches, prescriptions and practices that can be confusing and contradictory. Conceptualized as a process, innovation measurement lends itself to disaggregation into a series of separate studies. The consequence of this is the absence of a holistic framework covering the range of activities required to turn ideas into useful and marketable products. We attempt to address this gap by reviewing the literature pertaining to the measurement of innovation management at the level of the firm. Drawing on a wide body of literature, we first develop a synthesized framework of the innovation management process consisting of seven categories: inputs management, knowledge management, innovation strategy, organizational culture and structure, portfolio management, project management and commercialization. Second, we populate each category of the framework with factors empirically demonstrated to be significant in the innovation process, and illustrative measures to map the territory of innovation management measurement. The review makes two important contributions. First, it takes the difficult step of incorporating a vastly diverse literature into a single framework. Second, it provides a framework against which managers can evaluate their own innovation activity, explore the extent to which their organization is nominally innovative or whether or not innovation is embedded throughout their organization, and identify areas for improvement.

/pdf/innovation-management-measurement-a-review-2ulub0c559.pdf

Innovation management measurement: A review

Now in its seventh edition, Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organizational Change enables graduate and undergraduate students to develop the unique skill set and the foundational knowledge required to successfully manage innovation, technology, and new product development. This bestselling text has been fully updated with new data, new methods, and new concepts while still retaining its holistic approach the subject. The text provides an integrated, evidence-based methodology to innovation management that is supported by the latest academic research and the authors’ extensive experience in real-world management practice.

Students are provided with an impressive range of learning tools—including numerous case studies, illustrative examples, discussions questions, and key information boxes—to help them explore the innovation process and its relation to the markets, technology, and the organization. “Research Notes" examine the latest evidence and topics in the field, while "Views from the Front Line" offer insights from practicing innovation managers and connect the covered material to actual experiences and challenges. Throughout the text, students are encouraged to apply their knowledge and critical thinking skills to business model innovation, creativity, entrepreneurship, service innovation, and many more current and emerging approaches and practices.

John F Bessant

Papers

Managing innovation: integrating technological, market andorganizational change, 7th edition