Foster organizational learning: beyond ideation

learningOrganizational learning is about growing the intellectual capital of the firm across its people and teams, mobilizing problem-driven, opportunistic and systematic search behaviors.

Fig_3_7To uncover potential innovation opportunities and foster creativity, organizations and employees need to learn how to generate ideas by thinking in new boxes, challenging their prevailing mental models and “reinventing new wheels”.

Fig_3_8Employees can be a rich source of innovation ideas, provided that goals and expectations as well as coaching, selection, follow-up and feedback processes are carefully managed. Even in the best organizations most ideas end up being rejected. What matters most is what actually does happen the day after the “ideation” events.

Fig_3_9Organizations must decide when and where to build new technology platforms – deploy an R&D strategy – but also how to develop those technology platforms over time in terms of investments, geographic scope and governance – manage R&D operations.

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Organizational learning: growing intellectual capital

Keywords: benchmarks, communities of practice, creative industries, double-loop learning, institutional search, intellectual capital, organisational learning, problemistic search, slack, social capital

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Idea generation: Thinking in new boxes

Keywords: accommodation, assimilation, association, brainstorming, cognitive dissonance, creativity, framing, gamification, idea generation, lateral thinking, mental models, patterns, problematization, reframing, TRIZ

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Fostering employee-driven innovation

Keywords: business plan competition, challenges, employee-driven innovation, idea boxes, ideation, slack search

  • (Book) Høyrup, S. (2012) Employee-driven innovation: a new phenomenon, concept and mode of innovation. Palgrave Macmillan UK.
  • (Book) Patterson,  F.,  Port,  R.  L.,  and  Hobley,  S.  (2003)  The  Psychology  of  Innovation  and  Creativity:  A  review  of  research  and  practice  in  organisations. Chartered Institute of Personal Development. ISBN 0-9545861-0-7.
  • (Video) Fostering creativity and innovation in the workplace: Jude Reggett at TEDxNorthernSydneyInstitute
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  • (Article) Bessant, J., Caffyn, S., & Gallagher, M. (2001). An evolutionary model of continuous improvement behaviour. Technovation, 21(2), 67-77.
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  • (Article) Chen, J., Leung, W. S., & Evans, K. P. (2016). Are employee-friendly workplaces conducive to innovation?. Journal of Corporate Finance, 40, 61-79.
  • (Article) Cornelius, P. B., Gokpinar, B., & Sting, F. J. (2021). Sparking manufacturing innovation: How temporary interplant assignments increase employee idea values. Management Science, 67(4), 2231-2250.
  • (Article) Fairbank, J. F., & Williams, S. D. (2001). Motivating creativity and enhancing innovation through employee suggestion system technology. Creativity and Innovation Management, 10(2), 68-74.
  • (Article) Gray, P., Parise, S., & Iyer, B. (2011). ‘Innovation Impacts of Using Social Bookmarking Systems’. MIS Quarterly, 35, 629-643.
  • (Article) Isaksen, S. G., & Ekvall, G. (2010). Managing for innovation: The two faces of tension in creative climates. Creativity and Innovation Management, 19(2), 73-88.
  • (Article) Kesting, P., & Parm Ulhøi, J. (2010). Employee-driven innovation: extending the license to foster innovation. Management Decision, 48(1), 65-84.
  • (Article) Mainemelis, C. (2010). Stealing fire: Creative deviance in the evolution of new ideas. Academy of Management Review, 35(4), 558-578.
  • (Article) Martinez, M. (2015). Solver engagement in knowledge sharing in crowdsourcing communities: Exploring the link to creativity. Research Policy, 44, 1419-1430.
  • (Article) Martinsuo, M. (2009). Teaching the fuzzy front end of innovation: experimenting with team learning and cross‐organizational integration. Creativity and Innovation Management, 18(3), 147-159.
  • (Article) Mumford, M. D. (2000). Managing creative people: Strategies and tactics for innovation. Human Resource Management Review, 10(3), 313-351.
  • (Article) Nelson, B. A., Wilson, J. O., Rosen, D., & Yen, J. (2009). Refined metrics for measuring ideation effectiveness. Design Studies, 30(6), 737-743.
  • (Article) Rhee, L., & Leonardi, P. M. (2018). Which pathway to good ideas? A n attention‐based view of innovation in social networks. Strategic Management Journal, 39(4), 1188-1215.
  • (Article) Rigtering, J. C., Weitzel, G. U., & Muehlfeld, K. K. (2018). Increasing quantity without compromising quality: How managerial framing affects intrapreneurship. Journal of Business Venturing, 34(2), 224-241.
  • (Article) Shah, J. J., Smith, S. M., & Vargas-Hernandez, N. (2003). Metrics for measuring ideation effectiveness. Design Studies, 24(2), 111-134.
  • (Article) Siggelkow, N., & Rivkin, J. W. (2006). When exploration backfires: Unintended consequences of multilevel organizational search. Academy of Management Journal, 49(4), 779-795.
  • (Article) Tierney, P., & Farmer, S. M. (2002). Creative self-efficacy: Its potential antecedents and relationship to creative performance. Academy of Management Journal, 45(6), 1137-1148.
  • (Article) Toubia, O. (2006). Idea generation, creativity, and incentives. Marketing Science, 25(5), 411-425.
  • (Article) Van Dijk, C., & Van Den Ende, J. (2002). Suggestion systems: transferring employee creativity into practicable ideas. R&D Management, 32(5), 387-395.
  • (Article) Wallace, J. C., Butts, M. M., Johnson, P. D., Stevens, F. G., & Smith, M. B. (2016). A multilevel model of employee innovation: Understanding the effects of regulatory focus, thriving, and employee involvement climate. Journal of Management, 42(4), 982-1004.

Developing new technology platforms

Keywords: R&D definition, R&D expenditures, R&D location, R&D management, R&D performance, technology platforms

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  • (Video) Disruptive Innovation Festival by James Curran (on Vimeo)
  • (Video) Inventing the Impossible: Pablos Holman at TEDxUCSD
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  • (Article) Feinberg, S. E., & Gupta, A. K. (2004). Knowledge spillovers and the assignment of R&D responsibilities to foreign subsidiaries. Strategic Management Journal, 25(8‐9), 823-845.
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  • (Article) Henttonen, K., Ojanen, V., & Puumalainen, K. (2016). Searching for appropriate performance measures for innovation and development projects. R&D Management, 46(5), 914-927.
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  • (Article) Jaffe, A. B., (1986). Technological Opportunity and Spillovers of R&D: Evidence from Firms’ Patents, Profits, and Market Value. The American Economic Review, 76(5), 984-1001.
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  • (Article) Kapoor, R., & Furr, N.R. (2015). Complementarities and competition: Unpacking the drivers of entrants’ technology choices in the solar photovoltaic industry. Strategic Management Journal, 36(3), 416-436.
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  • (Article) Leiponen, A., & Helfat, C. E. (2011). Location, decentralization, and knowledge sources for innovation. Organization Science, 22(3), 641-658.
  • (Article) Leten, B., Belderbos, R., & Van Looy, B. (2007). Technological diversification, coherence, and performance of firms. Journal of Product Innovation Management, 24(6), 567-579.
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  • (Article) Prahalad, CK, Hamel, G (1990) “The core competencies of the corporation”, HBR May-June, 79-91
  • (Article) Reger, G. (2004). Coordinating globally dispersed research centres of excellence—the case of Philips Electronics. Journal of International Management, 10(1), 51-76.
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  • (Article) Scannell, J.W., Alex Blanckley, Helen Boldon & Brian Warrington (2012) Diagnosing the decline in pharmaceutical R&D efficiency, Nature Reviews Drug Discovery, 11, 191-200
  • (Article) Shefer, D., & Frenkel, A. (2005). R&D, firm size and innovation: an empirical analysis. Technovation, 25(1), 25-32.
  • (Article) Shin, J., Coh, B. Y., & Lee, C. (2013). Robust future‐oriented technology portfolios: Black–Litterman approach. R&D Management, 43(5), 409-419.
  • (Article) Singh, J. (2008). Distributed R&D, cross-regional knowledge integration and quality of innovative output. Research Policy, 37(1), 77-96.
  • (Article) Steinberg, P. J., Procher, V. D., & Urbig, D. (2017). Too much or too little of R&D offshoring: The impact of captive offshoring and contract offshoring on innovation performance. Research Policy, 46(10), 1810-1823.
  • (Article) Suzuki, J., & Kodama, F. (2004). Technological diversity of persistent innovators in Japan: Two case studies of large Japanese firms. Research Policy, 33(3), 531-549.
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  • (Article) Tsai, W. (2001). ‘Knowledge transfer in intraorganizational networks: effects of network position and absorptive capacity on business unit innovation and performance’. Academy of Management Journal, 44, 996-1004.
  • (Article) Von Zedtwitz, M., & Gassmann, O. (2002). Market versus technology drive in R&D internationalization: four different patterns of managing research and development. Research Policy, 31(4), 569-588.
  • (Article) Wang, C. H., Lu, I. Y., & Chen, C. B. (2008). Evaluating firm technological innovation capability under uncertainty. Technovation, 28(6), 349-363.
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(c) Prof. Benoit Gailly, Louvain School of Management

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