Organizing for the generation of radical innovations
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Typ
Examensarbete för masterexamen
Program
Management and economics of innovation (MPMEI), MSc
Publicerad
2021
Författare
Braun, Simon
Boström, Markus
Modellbyggare
Tidskriftstitel
ISSN
Volymtitel
Utgivare
Sammanfattning
Innovation management is a research domain that has been studied extensively and
tends to be a challenge for many practitioners. Innovation is commonly viewed as
a source of competitiveness and essential for survival. Whilst many scholars have
generally engaged in incremental innovation, the significance of organizing for radical
innovation has increased and captured the attention of academia and industry.
The thesis has been carried out in collaboration with a software company labeled
Company X. To collect data, the study used semi-structured interviews of Company
X. Furthermore, a literature review was conducted of the theory of innovation and
how it is practiced in prominent companies such as Google, Facebook, LinkedIn,
Twitter, Tesla Motors, and Apigee.
The study aims to explore approaches that can improve the opportunity of generating
radical innovations. The study contributes to academia by providing insights
into innovation management with a focus on radical innovation and to practitioners
wanting to enhance their radical innovation management. The three main components
analyzed are culture and people, organizational structure, and the innovation
process.
The analysis indicates that learning and acceptance of failure should permeate the
culture. Recruiters should strive to employ people that display entrepreneurial qualities
and empower them through ensuring psychological safety. To retain employees
and improve the generation of radical innovations, Company X should provide incentives
and rotate people in the organization to develop their knowledge. The
structure should facilitate knowledge sharing between different business entities to
capture insights from diverse sources, enabling more creativity in idea generation
processes. Decision-making should be decentralized to enable employees to freely
explore ideas without being limited by hierarchical relationships. Whilst the radical
innovation process is difficult to measure, practitioners should use frameworks that
encourage exploration of novel ideas, blending of different insights, and questioning
of existing assumptions. It is advised that corporations target innovators and
early adopters to facilitate the idea generation, additionally, if these customers are
reputable they can enable the diffusion of the innovation.
Beskrivning
Ämne/nyckelord
Innovation management , radical innovations , innovation process , innovation frameworks , innovation measurement , innovation and organization