Improving the success of radical innovation projects within established firms: engaging employees across different hierarchal levels

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (9) ◽  
pp. 951-965 ◽  
Author(s):  
Johan Bruneel ◽  
Els Van de Velde ◽  
Bart Clarysse ◽  
Paul Gemmel
Keyword(s):  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
Established Firms

scholarly journals Measuring radical innovation project success: typical metrics don’t work

2018 ◽  
Vol 39 (4) ◽  
pp. 34-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jimmi Normann Kristiansen ◽  
Paavo Ritala
Keyword(s):  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Incremental Innovation ◽  
Content Type ◽  
International Firms ◽  
Innovation Activities ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
Innovation Project ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Depth Interviews

Purpose Firms frequently struggle with measuring the performance of their radical innovation activities. Due to the uncertainty and ambiguity involved, key performance indicators (KPIs) used for incremental innovation projects are often not useful in this context. The purpose of this paper is to explore suitable KPIs particularly useful for radical innovation projects. Design/methodology/approach This study first reviews commonly used measures for innovation projects, which is then followed by case-study evidence from three industry-leading international firms. This study includes 13 in-depth interviews with innovation managers and directors in these firms, providing insights on how they measure the progress and performance of radical innovation projects. Findings KPIs used commonly in incremental innovation showed lackluster results in the case firms and were problematic for radical innovation context. A key finding was that radical innovation project performance should be evaluated based on the process rather than on the expected outcome. Concurrently, based on the literature review and the cases, three sets of KPIs with 13 specific KPIs useful for radical innovation projects are proposed. Originality/value The paper addresses a core challenge in using established KPIs in a radical innovation context. The paper gathers and synthesizes a range of measurement points suitable for radical innovation projects and provides specific suggestions for appropriate metrics that innovation managers can use.

How Hard Can It Be to Communicate? Communication Mode and Performance in Collaborative R&D Projects

2011 ◽  
pp. 174-192
Author(s):  
William H.A. Johnson
Keyword(s):  
Case Studies ◽  
Survey Data ◽  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Project Managers ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Communication Mode ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
Communication Modes ◽  
And Performance

Survey data and case studies of collaborative R&D projects are used to analyze the relative usage of communication modes [e.g., face-to-face (F2F), categorized as soft modes, versus written, categorized as hard modes]. Incremental (versus radical) innovation projects tended to use more written communication, as did those in which project managers defined the significant problems. Those with high ambiguity or equivocality did not rely more on F2F, but predictably, conflict and goal changes negatively impacted communication and performance. Despite managers’ insistence that F2F communication is critical, only the use of written communication was associated with project success. Soft communication modes (F2F) may be needed to set direction in projects involving radical innovation, or any other project in which goals are unclear and not well agreed upon. However, when the innovation is incremental, and goals are understood and accepted, the use of hard communication modes (written) is no deterrent to success.

scholarly journals Towards radical innovations in a mature company: an empirical study on the UX-FFE model

2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (02) ◽  
pp. 172-187 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adrien Lecossier ◽  
Marc Pallot ◽  
Pascal Crubleau ◽  
Simon Richir
Keyword(s):  
User Experience ◽  
Innovation Process ◽  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Global Market ◽  
Operational Performance ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
Radical Innovations ◽  
The Social ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
The Impact

AbstractThe ability to successfully conduct radical innovations is mandatory for mature industrial companies that want to remain competitive in the global market. This ability relies on several ingredients, namely: (1) the structuring of the innovation process; (2) managerial principles; (3) methodological tools; (4) the presence of a culture of innovation. This paper reports about the impact of applying the User eXperience-Fuzzy Front End (UX-FFE) model, which brings together the systemic innovation process with the social, economical, and methodological aspects on the outcomes of the innovation process. Firstly, it appears that the operational performance of the upstream innovation process relies on the quality of the social context, intrinsic to the group of co-creators, corresponding to the reported perceived experience. Secondly, the UX-FFE model application, therefore, allows optimizing the upstream innovation process performance. Indeed, we argue that the evaluation of the co-creators perceived experience brings new opportunities to optimize the operational performance of the upstream innovation process. The first part of this paper presents deeper a theoretical model, named UX-FFE, which combines a UX approach with an upstream innovation process (FFE). The main interest of this UX-FFE model is that it allows evaluating the social aspect of the upstream innovation process, which may be detrimental to the success of radical innovation projects in mature companies. The second part presents the results of previous experiments that validated the model. The results allow the design of an instrument dedicated to the evaluation of the user experience of co-creators in the ideation stage. Finally, the third part reports about the experimentation of the UX-FFE in a mature company. Results present the impact of the co-creators' experience on the performance of radical innovation projects.

scholarly journals The evolution of project portfolio selection methods: from incremental to radical innovation

2019 ◽  
Vol 26 (3) ◽  
pp. 212-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ximena Alejandra Flechas Chaparro ◽  
Leonardo Augusto de Vasconcelos Gomes ◽  
Paulo Tromboni de Souza Nascimento
Keyword(s):  
Portfolio Selection ◽  
Research Question ◽  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Project Portfolio ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Project Portfolio Selection ◽  
Information Gap ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
Selection Framework ◽  
Comprehensive Framework

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify how project portfolio selection (PPS) methods have evolved and which approaches are more suitable for radical innovation projects. This paper addressed the following research question: how have the selection approaches evolved to better fit within radical innovation conditions? The current literature offers a number of selection approaches with different and, in some cases, conflicting nature. Therefore, there is a lack of understanding regarding when and how to use these approaches in order to select a specific type of innovation projects (from incremental to more radical ones). Design/methodology/approach Given the nature of the research question, the authors perform a systematic literature review method and analyze 48 portfolio selection approaches. The authors then classified and characterized these articles in order to identify techniques, tools, required data and types of examined projects, among other aspects. Findings The authors identify four key features related to the selection of radical innovation projects: dynamism, interdependency management, uncertainty treatment and required input data. Based on the content analysis, the authors identified that approaches based on different sources and nature of data are more appropriated for uncertain conditions, such as behavioral methods, information gap theory, real options and integrated approaches. Originality/value The research provides a comprehensive framework about PPS methods and how they have been evolving over time. This portfolio selection framework considers the particular aspects of incremental and radical innovation projects. The authors hope that the framework contributes to reinvigorating the literature on selection approaches for innovation projects.

How do established firms improve radical innovation performance? The organizational capabilities view

Technovation ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 32 (7-8) ◽  
pp. 441-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuan-Chieh Chang ◽  
Huo-Tsan Chang ◽  
Hui-Ru Chi ◽  
Ming-Huei Chen ◽  
Li-Ling Deng
Keyword(s):  
Radical Innovation ◽  
Innovation Performance ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Established Firms

STRATEGIC INNOVATION IN ESTABLISHED COMPANIES: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF APPROPRIATE AMBIDEXTERITY STRATEGIES

2012 ◽  
Vol 16 (01) ◽  
pp. 1250007 ◽  
Author(s):  
LISELORE ANN BERGHMAN
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Business Development ◽  
Organizational Capabilities ◽  
Strategic Innovation ◽  
Industrial Sectors ◽  
Innovation Projects ◽  
Innovation Project ◽  
Established Firms ◽  
Innovation Type ◽  
Specific Phase

As strategic innovation may lead to high revenue and profit growth a deeper understanding of any enabling organizational capabilities is highly relevant to both researchers and managers. Therefore, in this paper we focus on the concept of "ambidexterity". More specifically, we use a qualitative research in five Dutch industrial sectors to study the ambidexterity strategies that established firms use for their systematic creation of strategic innovations. We find that established companies have to cope with different ambidexterity frictions in the initiation and commercialization phases of strategic innovation projects. These results add to the emerging academic discussion on ambidexterity by showing that the appropriate ambidexterity approach may not only differ by innovation type but also by the specific phase of the innovation project. Our findings are also relevant to managerial practice as they suggest a limited value of isolated business development units for strategic innovation initiation.

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