Description
Many businesses are involved in conceptualizing, crystallizing, concretizing, creating, and cultivating innovations. How individuals and organizations communicate about technological innovation is often a key factor in the success or failure of innovation management. It is common for an organization to be lacking a clear description of innovation and how innovation contributes to its strategy and performance.
To prepare for this Discussion, review the Learning Resources for this week and conduct further research of innovation models. Select a context for you to consider the nature of innovation, such as startups, small businesses, medium businesses, or large, international businesses. Also consider the role of technology to provide more depth to your chosen context. For example, is technology creation essential, or is it sufficient to apply existing technology? You may wish to consider a real organization or to describe a fictional organization to provide your context more clarity.
Post an evaluation of the nature of innovation within your chosen context. In your evaluation, do the following:
Describe your chosen context and define innovation. This should not be a generic definition but one tailored to the context. In your definition, also consider these questions and support your responses with sufficient detail and logic:
What is the role of innovation?
Is innovation market-driven, technology-driven, or a combination approach?
What opportunities exist for business model innovation?
Evaluate at least three foundational theories that are applicable to your context. You can begin with resources provided this week, but your theories should extend beyond these resources and involve your own research in the Walden Library using recent peer-reviewed sources. For each theory, provide a summary using these section headings:
The name of the theory
The year the theory was introduced
The theorist/author
Key components of the theory
A statement of how the theory does or does not apply to the organizational context you chose.
Be sure to support your work with a minimum of two specific citations from this week’s Learning Resources and at least one additional scholarly source.
LEARNING RESOURCES
Required Readings
Important Note: Some of the readings found in this course are more than 5 years old. Although we strive to use current references whenever possible, many of the seminal articles/resources found in this course are from the theorists who created the original theory/theories.
Almquist, E. (2016). The 30 things customers really value. Harvard Business Publishing.
Drucker, P. F. (2002). Discipline of innovation (HBR Classic). Harvard Business Review, 80(8), 95–103.
Bourke, J., & Crowley, F. (2016). Which organisational changes are most beneficial for firm innovation?Links to an external site. Economics and Business Letter, 5(4), 152–158. Retrieved from https://www.unioviedo.es/reunido/index.php/EBL/art…
Gans, J. (2016, Fall). The disruption dilemma. Rotman Management, 27–31.
Lichtenthaler, U. (2016b). Toward an innovation-based perspective on company performanceLinks to an external site.. Management Decision, 54(1), 66–87. doi:10.1108/MD-05-2015- 0161
Ulwick, A. W. (2002). Turn customer input into innovation. Harvard Business Review, 80(1), 91–97.
Optional Resources
Christensen, C., van Bever, D., & Michelman, P. (2017). Building a business creation engine.Links to an external site.[Webinar]. MIT Sloan Management Review. Retrieved from http://sloanreview.mit.edu/webinar-building-a-busi…
Kahl, S. J., & Grodal, S. (2016). Discursive strategies and radical technological change: Multilevel discourse analysis of the early computer (1947–1958). Strategic Management Journal, 37(1), 149–166. doi:10.1002/smj.2453
Lichtenthaler, U. (2016a). Five steps to transforming innovation processes: Continually adjusting to new environments. Journal of Business Strategy, 37(5), 39–45. doi:10.1108/JBS-08-2015-0090.
