Search fields for radical innovations involving market research

Strong market orientation is essential for innovation success! Although both academics and market research practitioners would generally accept this statement, alignment with the needs of the customer often results in conservative innovation strategies. Due to their focus on what is currently on offer in the marketplace, customers primarily demand so-called incremental innovations. Companies however, want to develop entry points for radical innovations. The identification of radical innovations is a difficult task whose implementation is often associated with significant risk. It is questionable if market research can alone allow innovation management to develop attractive search fields for radical innovations and if it can also contribute to the reduction of the risk that such innovations inherently possess. Closer observation shows that the market research methods used today for the discovery of radical innovations in the form of new market/technology combinations possess only limited suitability. Empirical tests verify that success-fully innovative companies often don't use such methods, rather they involve specifically qualified, innovative knowledge carriers early-on in the process such as Lead Users or external experts with relevant knowledge from analogous markets in the search for innovations. When searching for applications for radical innovations, market researchers should initially concentrate on the question of who they address as the information source. How successful the process of involving experts is and how well supported through the methodology it is, depends heavily on the specific factors and conditions related to the pro-ject planning. --Produktentwicklung,Produktinnovation,Marktforschung

India's Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs): Social construction of a "frugal" innovation

After the 2009 general elections in India a controversy started about the electronic voting machines (EVM) that are used nationwide since 2004. Political parties, activists, and academics raised suspicion that the machines might have been manipulated to alter the election outcome. There is no proof that EVMs have been manipulated in any of the past elections, however, concerned people claim that the risk is there. This paper takes a closer look at the Indian voting technology and the discussions around alleged security holes. The authors take a closer look at this particular controversy. Additionally we want to provide the reader with information about the Indian electronic voting system more generally. This includes reasons to change from the earlier paper ballot system and design challenges for EVM in the Indian context. We are writing within the frame of a theoretical model called Social Construction of Technology (SCOT), developed by Wiebe Bijker and Trevor Pinch (1987). Along the lines of this model we argue that after the EVM has been adopted in India, different "relevant social groups" interpreted the EVM in diverse ways. From the social constructivist perspective we argue there has been not just one but at least three different EVMs. With time the "interpretative flexibility" diminished and "relevant social groups" more or less agreed on one interpretation of the EVM. The EVM has "stabilized" and the controversy has been closed basically. We show the SCOT model to be helpful for structuring the controversy in a fruitful manner. The research questions adressed here are: How did the ECI and EVM manufacturers react to allegations made by political parties, VeTA, and voting security researchers that EVMs are vulnerable to manipulation? How was the election practice affected

Service provider - customer interactions: Key to success of innovative services

The majority of service providers have recognized the need to develop innovative services that meet sophisticated customer needs on time. Because of structural changes in the market, rising costs and shorter lifecycles of services and technologies this has become a more demanding task than ever before. Most of the existing research focuses on the development of products rather than services. However, research in service related innovation activities is highly rewarding, as the service market is about to become a dominant factor of economic development. The objective of this paper is to provide an overview of the current state of interaction research with special focus on service marketing and service purchasing processes. A short presentation of the most important theoretical results and findings from empirical studies will be given. Furthermore, we will present results from our own case study investigating the IT Service industry. In this context, we have identified three different approaches of successful interactions between service providers and potential buyers during marketing and purchasing processes with innovative results. We will describe these approaches, show their similarities and differences and as a result, provide recommendations for the service industry and potential buyers. --service provider,service market,service marketing,service purchasing

The impact of initial planning activities on project success: Some evidence from a study of Japanese companies

The domain of New Product Development (NPD) is subject to considerable uncertainties. However, companies are required to manage the innovation process as efficiently as possible. The resulting conflicting demands often leave companies struggling to achieve both, efficiency as well as flexibility due to their often opposing implications for organizing and managing NPD projects. In this context, planning plays a central role. This study tries to develop a deeper understanding of the influences of project planning, the degree of technological newness and both their effects on project success. Our analysis is based on project planning of in combination with New Product Development projects in 497 electrical and mechanical engineering companies. --

Lead market factors for global innovation: Emerging evidence from India

Securing access to lead markets is generally regarded as a key driver for the increasing globalization of innovation since these are considered to be early indicators for emerging customer needs. Such markets, therefore, offer a good chance of uncertainty reduction for in the innovation process of firms. Lead markets are generally defined in terms of product segments within national boundaries and are thought to exist in economies with high per capita income, highly sophisticated markets and high international visibility. We argue that there is increasing evidence of lead market tendencies in certain emerging economies, e.g. India. Both domestic and foreign-owned firms there, in recent years, have produced several internationally acclaimed frugal innovations such as the Tata Nano or GE's handheld ECG machine Mac400. Using several examples we demonstrate that India seems to have emerged as a global hub for low-cost, frugal innovations. In this paper, we seek to crystallize the role of lead markets in globalization of R&D and identify the need for an update/extension to better reflect the changed ground realities. On the basis of emerging evidence we propose that sustained economic growth, voluminous markets, strong domestic technological capabilities, presence of foreign-owned R&D, and favorable government policies may be able to offset some of the disadvantages rooted in traditional deficiencies. Engaging a developing country lead market may be useful for firms in securing better access to markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid worldwide. --globalization of innovation,lead markets,internationalization of R&D,frugal innovations,bottom of the pyramid

Taking advantage of online communities for generating innovative ideas

The use of the internet for business purposes and among consumers is spreading at an impressive rate. Companies use it for a lot of different activities like, for example, marketing, online shopping and customer service. However, the use of the internet for the purpose of innovation, to create ideas and concepts, is still underdeveloped. Practical experience shows that online communities are suitable for developing innovative ideas with users. To gain a deeper understanding of the underlying mechanisms we have taken a case-study approach. Based on this we generate a set of propositions concerning characteristics that a community should have in order to foster innovativeness. Our findings show that communities should be social, access should be restricted and it is necessary that users are free to post critical messages. Furthermore, the threads should be organised to create a lively discussion and users have to be able to build-up reputation. --internet , online communities

Intermediaries and Innovation: Why they emerge and how they facilitate IP transactions on the markets for technology

With this paper we aim to contribute to the discussion about the difficulties that occur when trading technical knowledge and particularly patents. Currently one can observe that markets for technology have been sizable growing, transaction obstacles are still immanent and technology market intermediaries (TMI) emerge that develop new models aiming to facilitate Intellectual Property (IP) transactions. Why TMIs emerge and how they attempt to facilitate IP transactions however is not yet sufficiently understood. We propose theoretical explanations for these two questions building primarily on the contributions of Stigler (1951) and Williamson (1979). We argue that the growing markets for technologies on the one hand and immanent transaction obstacles on the other hand lead to further division of labor and thus foster the emergence of TMIs. Following Williamson (1979) we propose that the new transaction models developed by TMIs attempt to implement more standardized governance structures in order to diminish transaction costs. However it remains to be seen which of the newly developed models (or those to come) will survive and actually deliver more economic transactions. --

Role of "Lead Market" factors in globalization of innovation: Emerging evidence from India & its implications

Access to lead markets is generally regarded as an important driver of the increasing globalization of innovation since these are considered to be early indicators for emerging customer needs. They are traditionally thought to exist in economies with high per capita income, sophisticated markets and high international visibility. We, however, propose that there is an increasing evidence of lead market tendencies in some emerging economies, e.g. India. We undertake a literature review to crystallize the need for an update/extension of the existing model to better reflect the changed ground realities and propose that factors such as voluminous markets, strong technological capabilities, and favorable government policies may be able to offset some of the disadvantages rooted in traditional deficiencies of developing economies. Engaging a developing country lead market may be useful for firms in securing better access to markets at the bottom of the economic pyramid, worldwide. --Lead Markets,India,Globalization of Innovation,Internationalization of R&D,Frugal Innovations

Management of R & D cooperation

Because of the high degree of technological complexity and the increasing convergence of new technologies, it is becoming more and more difficult to develop advanced products for those companies who solely rely on their own in-house 'core competencies'. One possible response made to these rising requirements is the consideration of cooperation with other companies. Since prior research on cooperation is extensive in its theoretical scope and diverse in its disciplinary bases, it seems appropriate to give a short overview on the literature. In this article, we pursue two purposes: Firstly, we provide a brief and comprehensive picture of theoretical findings on technology-related cooperation pertinent to practitioners by using a process-oriented framework which helps us to integrate the existing literature from different academic disciplines. Secondly, while management scholars have primarily tended to focus on certain research streams, we draw attention to some issues not sufficiently covered by the literature today. We highlight the importance of the technological content (incremental vs. breakthrough and product vs. process innovations) as well as the orientation of the cooperation (horizontal vs. lateral) which should be considered in more detail in future research. --

The "fuzzy front end" of innovation

The fast transformation of technologies into new products or processes is one of the core challenges for any technology-based enterprise. Within the innovation process, we believe, the early phases (fuzzy front end) to have the highest impact on the whole process and the result (Input-Output Process), since it will influence the design and total costs of the innovation extremely. However the Fuzzy Front End is unfortunately the least-well structured part of the innovation process, both in theory and in practice. The focus of the present chapter is on methods and tools to manage the fuzzy front end of the innovation process. Firstly, the activities, characteristics, and challenges of the front end are described. Secondly, a framework of the application fields for different methods and tools is presented: Since a product upgrade requires a different approach compared to radical innovation, where the market is unknown and a new technology is applied, we believe such a framework to be useful for practitioners. Thirdly, a selection of methods and tools that can be applied to the fuzzy front end are presented and allocated within the framework. The methods selected here address process improvements, concept generation, and concept testing. --fuzzy front end,innovation management,stage-gate process,frontloading,triz,dsm-matrix,lead user