Company Innovation System: Identifying the Innovation Capability of a Company

Company Innovation System: Identifying the Innovation Capability of a Company

Kamalapurkar, A.P.

Scholten, V.E. (mentor)
Ubacht, J. (mentor)

Technology, Policy and Management

Management of Technology

Technology Strategy Entrepreneurship

2013-12-20

We propose a new concept called the Company Innovation System in this thesis. Company Innovation System (CIS) is the network of stakeholders in a firm for the generation, adoption and use of innovation within companies. CIS is developed building on three existing state-of-the arts. Josef Schumpeter’s idea that says innovation is a process characterized as a set of new combinations. The concept of Innovation Systems that lists National, Regional, Sectoral & Technological factors that influence the creation, diffusion, development and use of innovations. And, Business Ecosystems, defined as a network of actors around a core technology, who depend on each other for their success and survival. In this exploratory, qualitative research we first define the company innovation system and systematically list its elements and characteristics. Seven elements (agents, resources & capabilities, input/output, interaction mechanisms, knowledge & learning, process & projects, and, rules & governance) are identified from the state-of-the-art and are given unique attributes since they cut across Nations, Regions, Sectors, Businesses and Technology Innovation systems. We show how elements and characteristics need to be identified, combined and recombined to lead to higher innovativeness by drawing attention to the linkages and interaction within the innovation system of a company. We then proceed to check the applicability of the concept by testing it in a case study at an IT services company. As a services company, innovation is fundamentally different than product firms. Innovation in services companies may not take place in linear ways, but as interactions between various parts of the business and customers, hence making innovation more complex to understand and manage. The need for this research is to translate the innovation systems concept at the level of the company and holistically integrate, identify and increase innovativeness of a company.

innovation
company innovation system
ecosystem
strategy
systems theory

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:f32469fe-b199-4748-a959-b869d842c2aa

2015-12-20

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2013 Kamalapurkar, A.P.