Man­aging Stra­tegic In­nov­a­tion

Course content

Innovation is a key driver of competitiveness and economic growth: organizations capable of successfully developing new products, services, processes or business models have considerable benefits over their non-innovating competitors. But innovation is also a complex, cross-disciplinary and risky endeavor, and requires particular skills in management, leadership and organization. This course introduces students to important innovation management basics such as understanding types, processes and sources of innovation, including the incresing role of artificial intelligence. Building on this, students will learn about selected innovation methods, explore how to strategize for innovation and discuss appropriate organizational designs for generating innovation in companies. In this course, a particular focus is given to open and collaborative approaches to innovation (Open Innovation), accommodating increasing complexity and the need for multi-domain spanning activities involved in solving 21st century challenges.

The course is structured as follows:

Part 1: Understanding innovation: types, models, processes and sources of innovation, network externalities, platforms and appropriability

Part 2: Strategizing innovation: innovation roles, goals and areas, timing of R&D and market entry, balancing exploration and exploitation, ecosytem drivers of innovation roles

Part 4: Organizing for innovation: organizational design, ambidexterity, absorptive capacity, innovation hubs, leadership for innovation 

Part 2: Developing innovation capabilities: innovation project design, innovation search and collaboration, (open) innovation methods