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Desouza, K.C., Dombrowski, C., Awazu, Y., Baloh, P., Papagari, S., Jha, S., and Kim, J.Y."Crafting Organizational Innovation Processes," Innovation: Management, Policy & Practice, 11 (1), 2009, 6-33.
Innovation is a crucial component of business strategy, but the process of
innovation may seem difficult to manage. To plan organizational initiatives
around innovation or to bolster innovation requires a firm grasp of the
innovation process. Few organizations have transparently defined such a process.
Based on the findings of an exploratory study in over 30 US and European
companies that successfully foster innovation, this paper breaks the innovation
process down into discrete stages: idea generation and mobilization, screening
and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, diffusion and implementation.
For each stage, context, outputs and critical ingredients are discussed. There
are several common tensions and concerns at each stage, which are enumerated;
industry examples are also given. Finally, strategies for and indicators of
organizational maturity around innovation are discussed for each stage. Mature
organizations will use an outlined innovation process to create a common
framework for discussion and initiatives around the innovation process, and to
establish metrics and goals for each stage of the innovation process.
Braganza, A., Awazu, Y., and Desouza, K.C. "Sustaining Innovation: The Challenge
for Incumbents," Technical Report, # BVI-I3M-SustainInnov-1, Institute for
Innovation in Information Management, The Information School, University of
Washington, February, 2007, 18 pages.
In today's competitive environment, the ability of an organization to innovate
is considered paramount. While most organizations have flashes or spurts of
innovation, only a handful of organizations have been able to innovate on a
continuous and sustained basis. In this paper, we report on the challenges faced
by firms when trying to build sustainable innovation programs. These findings
have been deduced from an examination of innovation programs in over 30
organizations based in North America, Europe, and Asia.
Baloh, P., Jha, S., Desouza, K.C., Kim, J.Y., Awazu, Y., Dombrowski, C.
"Building Partnerships for Innovation," Technical Report, #
I4I-I3M-InnovBusPart-1, Institute for Innovation in Information Management, The
Information School, University of Washington, October, 2006, 35 pages.
In a business environment characterized by the development of deep, niche
expertise in a particular domain, business partnerships can provide a source of
innovative rejuvenation. This paper aims to uncover how organizations engage in
innovation with business partners through exploratory multiple case study of
over 30 innovative European and US companies. Data collection involved 50
semi-structured interviews with senior representatives from R&D, product
management, information technology, and marketing. The interview data were
complemented by desk research: analysis of corporate reports and validated in
follow-up sessions. Three complementary models of business partner innovation
emerged: acquisition, strategic alliances, and open source. These can be used in
a portfolio manner by organizations with sustainable innovation programs.
Organizations make strategic, project-based choices. Based on the three models,
we propose a three-dimensional "Co-Innovation Space", in order to analyze
existing innovation project portfolios and/or to plan what kind of innovation
approach a company may take within the near future.
Desouza, K.C., and Dombrowski, C. "Six Case Studies on Organizational
Innovation," Technical Report, # I4I-I3M-InnovCases-1, Institute for Innovation
in Information Management, The Information School, University of Washington,
October, 2006, 30 pages.
Case studies on the innovative practices as leading-edge organizations such as
3M, Hewlett Packard, Procter and Gamble, General Electric, Samsung, and
Whirlpool.
Dombrowski, C., Kim, J.Y., Desouza, K.C., Braganza, A., Papagari, S., Baloh, P.,
and Jha, S. "Elements of Innovative Cultures," Technical Report, #
I4I-I3M-InnovCult-1, Institute for Innovation in Information Management, The
Information School, University of Washington, October, 2006, 20 pages.
Organizational culture is an important determinant of sustained innovativeness
and financial performance. Though it is easy to appreciate the important role
culture plays in making an innovation successful, it is difficult to change
culture. One way of changing culture could be to identify elements of innovative
culture and then imbibing the ones relevant to a given organization. In this
paper, we have identified, based on past research, eight elements of
organizational innovative culture: innovative mission and vision statements,
democratic communication, safe spaces, flexibility, collaboration, boundary
spanning, incentives, and leadership. We believe assimilating these elements of
organizational culture will enable organizations to support and sustain
innovative activities.
Desouza, K.C., Dombrowski, C., Awazu, Y., Baloh, P., Papagari, S., Kim, J.Y.,
and Jha, S. "Crafting Organizational Innovation Processes," Technical Report,
#I4I-I3M-InnovProc-1, Institute for Innovation in Information Management, The
Information School, University of Washington, August, 2006, 35 pages. [Featured
in: Mariello, A. "The Five Stages of Successful Innovation," Sloan Management
Review, 48 (3), 2007, 8-9.].
Innovation is a crucial component of business strategy, but the process of
innovation may seem difficult to manage. To plan organizational initiatives
around innovation or to bolster innovation requires a firm grasp of the
innovation process. Few organizations have transparently defined such a process.
Based on the findings of an exploratory study in over 30 US and European
companies that successfully foster innovation, this paper breaks the innovation
process down into discrete stages: idea generation and mobilization, screening
and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, diffusion and implementation.
For each stage, context, outputs and critical ingredients are discussed. There
are several common tensions and concerns at each stage, which are enumerated;
industry examples are also given. Finally, strategies for and indicators of
organizational maturity around innovation are discussed for each stage. Mature
organizations will use an outlined innovation process to create a common
framework for discussion and initiatives around the innovation process, and to
establish metrics and goals for each stage of the innovation process.
Desouza, K.C., Awazu, Y., Jha, S., Dombrowski, C., Papagari, S., Baloh, P., and
Kim, J.Y. "Customer-Driven Innovation," Technical Report, #I4I-I3M-CustInnov-1,
Institute for Innovation in Information Management, The Information School,
University of Washington, August, 2006, 28 pages.
Involving customers in the innovation process involves a host of new concerns,
concepts and managerial decisions. Transitioning from older paradigms of no or
low customer involvement requires new attention to types of customer innovation,
organizational mission and organizational structure. This article (1) provides a
typology for customer innovation, (2) describes how to involve customers in the
innovation process, and (3) provides a framework for shifting organizational
structure and emphasis towards customer-driven innovation. This conceptual
overview is illustrated with examples from successful organizations and
discussion of critical issues and concerns around each type of customer
innovation. Shifting to a customer-driven innovation process enables continual,
sustainable innovation for an organization.
Awazu, Y., Baloh, P., Desouza, K.C., Wecht, C.H., Kim, J.Y., and Jha, S.
"Opening up Innovation through Information-Communication Technologies,"
Technical Report, #I4I-I3M-InnovICT-1, Institute for Innovation in Information
Management, The Information School, University of Washington, July, 2006, 16
pages.
Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are no longer just for internal
use. Rather, in the era of open and distributed innovation ICTs must be
leveraged by businesses and organizations to reach, record and review ideas from
internal and external sources ranging from vendors, suppliers and customers to
employees. Interacting with all stakeholders improves the quality and
consistency of ideas. ICTs enable that process at all levels through inclusion
and interaction. This paper explores specific ways that ICTs can be used to
enable the entire innovation process: from idea generation and development, to
experimenting and testing, and finally, to commercialization of ideas. In
particular, ICTs enable management of sources of ideas, documentation of idea
histories, distribution and sharing of ideas, market targeting and organic idea
development. Successful practitioner examples and specific technologies are
discussed in context to outline opportunities and trends in the new era of open,
distributed, ICT-enabled innovation. The emerging trend of distributed and open
innovation illustrates that customers and users are no longer passively waiting
for products. Widely connected, interactive and collaborative practice of
innovation will provide a competitive edge to the corporations that carefully
select and deploy ICT strategies.
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