Why Reinvent the Wheel? The Efficacy of the Systematic Problem Solving Method 'TRIZ' and it Value for Innovation in Engineering and Implications for Engineering Management

The engineering industry needs to be more innovative. A case study of a recent breakthrough innovative development by Michelin is discussed. The influence of prior training with systematic problem solving method TRIZ, on the innovation team, is assessed using a questionnaire. The questionnaire is based on a company innovation audit model proposed by Mann and influenced by the creativity model of Baille. Results are discussed which show significant innovation development when using TRIZ. The efficacy of training key workers in systematic problem solving and creative methods is discussed and the implications for managers in innovation promotion and workplace environment change are highlighted

Disruptive Innovation: Enabling Practitioners to Tackle the "Innovators Dilemma" With Graphical Techniques - A Focus on Resource Allocation

This paper presents the findings of part of a 30 month investigation, conducted to better understand the persistent failure of management practitioners to fund potentially disruptive innovations. A Mode 2 case study strategy was employed. The iterative transfer of knowledge, between four industrial cases and academia, has successfully culminated in new academic understanding of disruptive innovation and guidance for practitioners. It was found that funding decisions are mainly constrained by mental not physical processes. Organisations wishing to pursue disruptive innovations can challenge psychological attachments to incrementalism, and overcome the funding barrier, with a holistic understanding delivered through graphical portfolio tools

Exploring How Resource Allocation Routines Inhibit the Pursuit of Disruptive Innovations as a Route to Corporate Entrepreneurship

Given the corporate pursuit of discontinuous and breakthrough change, we work to deconstruct and shed understanding on managers’ failure to formally allocate resources to entrepreneurial activities that seek to deliver disruptive innovations. Using an interpretivist approach with field data from two primary and four secondary cases, we show that managers’ failure to recognise the restrictive impact of their mental models – their implicitly held images and beliefs – regarding the goals of innovation and organisational development will lead them to reject opportunities with disruptive potential. We design and implement a graphical Portfolio Management intervention to expose and overcome these maladaptive behaviours and find that managers employ up to five different ‘disruptive innovation rejection strategies’ when innovation opportunities are incongruent with dominant mental models. The rejection strategies are observed to be driven by the psychologically uncomfortable emergence of ‘cognitive dissonance’. We further ground the data in the often neglected literature from social psychology’s cognitive dissonance theory to generate implications for business leaders, instigating an innovative stream of research for those interested in further enhancing our understanding of the entrepreneurial pursuit of disruptive innovations

Unbundling The Determinants Of Inertia To Discontinuous Innovation: Elaborating The Impact Of Organizational Field Transparency

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Marketing buzz : towards a framework for entrepreneurs

Despite the increasing recognition of the importance of word of mouth as an integral component of a firms’ marketing efforts, there has been little emphasis on developing suitable guidelines for entrepreneurs who wish to leverage scarce resources by pursuing more innovative marketing techniques. In addition, although there has been a great deal of research into the nature of social networks and interpersonal communication via word of mouth, there have been few attempts to link this research with the firms marketing strategy. In this paper, we consider the diffusion of innovation literature and recent research into social network structure and propose a framework that may be useful for enhancing the marketing efforts of entrepreneurial firms