Coupling processes and the strategic management of innovation
Coupling processes and the strategic management of innovation
In a commercial firm the effective direction of R& D must include, at some point in time, developing strategies to secure the adoption of innovative new ideas. This means that processes are needed to ensure that R& D project decisions are in the final analysis, customer related. Different types of innovation; Radical and Incremental require different adoption strategies. This prompts the proposal to change the existing definition of innovation type from the current emphasis on technical complexity to one involving the customer's perspective. This new definition is shown to be more useful for strategic decision making than defining innovation type in terms of technological content. These new definitions also imply changes in the way that functional (innovative) project decision processes need to be handled.
The evidence is that as firms mature they tend to adopt more incremental types of innovation. It is argued that at some point in a firm's commercial development the adoption of a degree of more radical innovation is needed to ensure corporate renewal. The balance of incremental and radical innovation affects the extent of uncertainty and risk in the firm's product portfolio. Defining and accepting the extent of this balance is a high level strategic choice.
The search for innovation is also dependent on the evolution of technologies. The choice of technology is likely to affect the type of innovation and thus the customer's propensity to adopt innovative ideas, so a process that evaluates the likely customer acceptance of technology is required. Customer focussed technological choices need judgements about their likely future impact on the firm's overall value chain, as well as the probability of achieving technical advance.
University of Southampton
1993
Northcott, Michael John
(1993)
Coupling processes and the strategic management of innovation.
University of Southampton, Doctoral Thesis.
Record type:
Thesis
(Doctoral)
Abstract
In a commercial firm the effective direction of R& D must include, at some point in time, developing strategies to secure the adoption of innovative new ideas. This means that processes are needed to ensure that R& D project decisions are in the final analysis, customer related. Different types of innovation; Radical and Incremental require different adoption strategies. This prompts the proposal to change the existing definition of innovation type from the current emphasis on technical complexity to one involving the customer's perspective. This new definition is shown to be more useful for strategic decision making than defining innovation type in terms of technological content. These new definitions also imply changes in the way that functional (innovative) project decision processes need to be handled.
The evidence is that as firms mature they tend to adopt more incremental types of innovation. It is argued that at some point in a firm's commercial development the adoption of a degree of more radical innovation is needed to ensure corporate renewal. The balance of incremental and radical innovation affects the extent of uncertainty and risk in the firm's product portfolio. Defining and accepting the extent of this balance is a high level strategic choice.
The search for innovation is also dependent on the evolution of technologies. The choice of technology is likely to affect the type of innovation and thus the customer's propensity to adopt innovative ideas, so a process that evaluates the likely customer acceptance of technology is required. Customer focussed technological choices need judgements about their likely future impact on the firm's overall value chain, as well as the probability of achieving technical advance.
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Published date: 1993
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Local EPrints ID: 462646
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/462646
PURE UUID: 88f1f001-9347-40a1-8377-774d24d36833
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Date deposited: 04 Jul 2022 19:35
Last modified: 04 Jul 2022 19:35
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Author:
Michael John Northcott
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