In­nov­a­tion Man­age­ment

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. Building on this, students will learn about selected innovation methods 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: Innovation management basics I: types, models, processes and sources of innovation

Part 2: Innovation management basics II: network externalities, platforms and appropriability

Part 3: Selected (open) innovation methods and their fields of application

Part 4: Organizing for (open) innovation