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Guest Editors

Josue Reynoso, Michigan Technological University, United States

Raoni Barros Bagno, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Brazil

Wannapa Naburana, Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand

 

Theme and general context

Innovation has been increasingly recognized as the main pillar of competitiveness for companies as well as for regions or even entire countries (Bagno et al., 2015; Miguel et al., 2013). We can define innovation as the successful exploration of new ideas, which often comprises new technologies associated with new products or services, significantly improved production processes, and/or superior business models (DTI, 2003).

Remarkably from the 2000s onwards, the concept of Open Innovation (as coined by Chesbrough, 2003), brought about the idea that innovation could be conceived through a fluid-border process, in which a single company would not need to own or control every resource to conduct an innovation opportunity “from idea to launch” – to use the classic expression adopted by Cooper (1989) in the early days of New Product Development debate – but instead technological innovation should come from the effort of diverse partners (e.g. universities, startups, customers, other companies) that share resources, risks, and rewards throughout the journey (Araujo, 2012; Mazini et al., 2013; Miguel et al., 2013). Even though open innovation approaches have soundly echoed in academic and managerial settings over the last two decades, intricacies associated with contracts, disclosure of information, culture, strategic orientation, internal processes, among others have been recognized as relevant barriers to companies to change towards open innovation models (Allmendinger & Berger, 2019; Bagno et al., 2020; Greenwood & Miller, 2010; Huizingh, 2011; Onetti, 2019).

Moreover, open Innovation initiatives have been often restricted to large companies seeking to launch new products, and challenges include the design of organizational processes to approach the uncertainties associated with open innovation such as defining purposes, partners, roles, and level of interaction (Bagno et al., 2015; Bagno et al., 2020; Brunswicker & Chesbrough, 2018; Caetano et al., 2011; Huizingh, 2011). Additionally, Brunswicker and Chesbrough (2018) point out that companies are still more willing to receive knowledge for free than making their knowledge available for free.

According to Castells and Hall (1994), the information economy would be characterized by new organizational forms, an idea that holds implications for both internal structures of established firms and the inter-organizational forms of innovating. Thus, more horizontal networks among companies and other agents and more flexible and specialized production systems should emerge. Hansen et al. (2000) reinforced that “the new economy is a networked economy”.

In the last 15 years, the concept of innovation ecosystem has become popular and increasingly debated (Granstrand & Holgersson, 2019). Here, innovation ecosystem is defined as an environment set for the co-creation of value, composed of interconnected but interdependent actors (e.g. the focal firm, customers, suppliers, startups, and others) that face both cooperation and competition (Gomes et al., 2018; Granstrand & Holgersson, 2019). This notion represents a shift from managing innovation uncertainties at the firm level to ecosystems’ collective uncertainties of loose-coupled partners (Gomes et al., 2018; Salerno et al., 2015).

The innovation ecosystems represent a new era for innovation management in the sense that networks tend to be highly dependent on elements such as relationships, mutual interests or reputation, and less dependent on a formal structure of authority (Powell, 1990; Wikhamn & Styhre, 2019). Thus, network relations would be largely characterized by undefinition, long-term, and complexity. Such a change would imply moving from bilateral to multi-actor and from transactional to collaborative modes (Brunswicker & Chesbrough, 2018), which require the next wave of management innovations to focus on networks rather than lines of command (Gobble, 2018; McGrath, 2014; Oliveira et al., 2019). In this new era, individual managers are responsible for creating communities for those who work with them, which will require rethinking roles, organizational structures, and the notion of performance (McGrath, 2014).

 

Research Questions

Given the state of the literature and the practical challenges of the innovation community, there are numerous areas where insights are needed. Thus, this special issue is receptive to several potential research questions focused whether on macro, micro, or technical level of analysis that bring new insights associated with the main subject of this call such as:

  • What are the new approaches for innovation management arising in the companies? Which new capabilities become essential?
  • Which organizations’ cultural, structural, and processual aspects this new context impacts the most, and how to overcome the challenges these changes represent to the companies?
  • What are the recommended leadership styles or behaviors for ecosystem environments? What relationship exists between leadership and performance or environmental characteristics in innovation ecosystems?
  • How large established organizations integrate to new network settings, and how might they behave in a model that privileges mutual benefits?
  • Which dynamic capabilities are necessary or more significant for startups, incubated, and large organizations in ecosystem environments? How can flexibility, agility, and adaptation mechanisms improve the performance in innovation management in these environments?
  • How to think of brand and product strategies in these environments?
  • How the new generation of business models and innovation projects get financed, and how do they generate financial returns to the companies?
  • How do organizations attract and keep the best talents?
  • How to deal with intellectual property rights in the context of loosely coupled partners?
  • Which methods, tools, and approaches arise to support and foster innovation management and foresight efforts?
  • How does Portfolio Management contribute to performance improvements in innovation ecosystems? Which changes or new practices are necessary to adapt the Portfolio Management in this new context?
  • How design and human center involvement contribute to innovation ecosystems? Which new design propositions can support organizations facing these innovation challenges? How to evaluate or manage risks?
  • Which benefits, barriers and relationships exist between servitization, PSS, and Circular Economy and innovation ecosystems?
  • What is the role played by digital technologies in opening new business opportunities and in building innovation capabilities in the organizations?
  • What are the implications, threats, and opportunities for SMEs and companies of traditional sectors in this new context?

 

 

Submission

Please submit the abstract and full paper to the PMD electronic submission process (https://pmd.submitcentral.com.br/login.php). The full paper must follow the PMD instructions for authors (https://www.pmd.igdp.org.br/instructions).

 

Schedule and general instructions

  • Papers will be reviewed according to the PMD double-blind review process.
  • Manuscripts should be submitted through the PMD online submission process: https://pmd.submitcentral.com.br/. When navigating the submission process, please make sure the paper category “Special issue on innovation management in incumbent companies and new ventures…” is selected at step 5.
  • Interested authors send abstracts by April 11st 2021. When submitting an abstract you should follow the same process as full papers.
  • Decisions on acceptance of abstracts by May 9th, 2021.
  • Full papers submitted by July 11st, 2021.

 

Guest Editors

  • Josue Reynoso is an assistant professor of Management and Entrepreneurship at Michigan Tech. He obtained his doctoral degree from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Strategy, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship. His research work focuses on explores how organizations and individuals identify opportunities for the commercialization of advanced technologies. He is also working on internal venture units, entrepreneur research, and complex dynamics in social systems. He is a member of and has presented his research at the Academy of Management (AOM), the Strategic Management Society (SMS), and the Product Development Management Association. Prior to starting his doctoral studies, he was Assistant Professor and Head of the Computer-Aided Engineering Center at the Engineering School of Universidad Panamericana in Guadalajara, Mexico. Josue also worked in the automotive, metal-mechanic, and software industries in various engineering positions. He has a B.S. in Mechatronics and M.S. in Bussiness of Technological Innovation.
  • Raoni Barros Bagno is an assistant Professor at the Production Engineering Department, Federal University of Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brazil, where he coordinates the Technology Center for Quality and Innovation (NTQI). He received the Ph.D. degree in production engineering from the University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo, Brazil, in 2014. He is a member of the Instituto de Inovação e Gestão de Desenvolvimento do Produto – IGDP and has authored research papers in academic journals such as Technovation, Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, R&D Management, Product: Management & Development, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management and International Journal of Project Management. He was also a Visiting Scholar at Babson College, Wellesley, MA, United States. His research interests include innovation and technology management and product development systems.
  • Wannapa Naburana is a lecturer at the School of Management Technology and appointed Manager of Innovation Based Incubator at Technopolis Suranaree University of Technology, Thailand. She accomplished Doctor of Professional Studies from Central Queensland University Australia in International Business. She specializes in business development particularly interest in business model innovation and go-to-market strategies for innovative products and services. Her current research focuses on new product development, entrepreneurship, and innovation management across small and medium-sized enterprises.

References

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Araujo, C. S. (2012). Lessons learned on the planning and execution of technology innovation projects with academic partnership: aerospace industry case study. Product: Management & Development, 10(1), 41-51.

Bagno, R. B., Leiva, T. L., & de Oliveira, L. G. H. (2015). Innovation management: lessons learned from innovation diagnostic tools. Product: Management and Development, 14(1), 12-21.

Bagno, R. B., Salerno, M. S., Souza Junior, W. C., & O’Connor, G. C. (2020). Corporate engagements with startups: antecedents, models, and open questions for innovation management. Product: Management & Development, 18(1), 39-52. https://doi.org/10.4322/pmd.2019.019

Brunswicker, S., & Chesbrough, H. (2018). The Adoption of Open Innovation in Large Firms. Research-Technology Management, 61(1), 35-45.

Caetano, M., Araujo, C. S., Amaral, D. C., & Guerrini, F. M. (2011). Open innovation and technology development process: the gap on partnership adoption from a case study perspective. Product: Management and Development, 9(2), 111-120.

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