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Untangling capabilities for managing the front end of innovation
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-1390-1820
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden | University of Vaasa, Finland.ORCID iD: 0000-0003-3255-414X
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0001-5464-2007
Luleå University of Technology, Luleå, Sweden.ORCID iD: 0000-0002-8103-2519
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(English)Manuscript (preprint) (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

This article investigates the vital and often underemphasized front end of innovation. It aims to explore how firms utilize organizational capabilities to manage multiple sources of fuzziness (uncertainty, equivocality, and complexity). In so doing, we use the capability- and knowledge-based view to examine the use of firms’ capabilities to navigate the front end process from vague ideas towards corroborated product definition. In our qualitative case of seven manufacturing firms, we explore practices, methods, and routines for managing the front end. We explain that new product ideas can be classified according to different degrees of fuzziness, which implies that not all product ideas can or should be treated in the same way. In fact, certain capabilities are more important for managing the development of ideas at low (i.e. process management and idea refinement) and high (problem formulation and problem solution) levels of fuzziness. Ultimately, we suggest a theoretical framework that elucidates how firms use two distinct paths (i.e. tolerance-based or reduction-based) to transform early new product ideas into corroborated product definitions. In doing so, our results guide project members in matching the magnitude of knowledge problems with organizational capabilities and thereby increase front-end performance.

National Category
Business Administration
Research subject
Entrepreneurship and Innovation
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-38866OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hh-38866DiVA, id: diva2:1287111
Note

As manuscript in thesis.

Available from: 2018-05-15 Created: 2019-02-08 Last updated: 2021-01-26Bibliographically approved
In thesis
1. Managing the Collaborative Front End of Innovation in Manufacturing Firms: Requirements, Capabilities, and Conditions
Open this publication in new window or tab >>Managing the Collaborative Front End of Innovation in Manufacturing Firms: Requirements, Capabilities, and Conditions
2018 (English)Doctoral thesis, comprehensive summary (Other academic)
Abstract [en]

The front end is a phase of the innovation process that starts with a new product idea and completes when firms have developed a new product definition. This phase is critical for many manufacturing firms. Front-end outcomes is indeed critical to overall product success, market penetration, time to-market, and financial performance. During this phase, new products are born as ideas, and subsequently move through screening, project definition, and business analysis. However, this phase remains poorly understood in the era of more open innovation (e.g., interfirm collaboration). Although the literature on front end of innovation is well developed, prior studies have largely focused on bilateral agreements and have overlooked conditions for collaboration with science-based partners (universities and research institutes). This is especially true for manufacturing firms, for which a continuous stream of new product ideas is a key source of competitiveness. To make things worse, the front end of innovation conducted with external actors involved is often characterized by incongruent practices by partners, different magnitudes of fuzziness, and considerable risks in revealing new ideas. Developing new product definitions with different partners is thus a risky endeavor if mishandled that may seriously compromise competitive advantages of firms. Therefore, greater knowledge is required to facilitate the collaborative front end with different types of partners. Against this background, the purpose of this dissertation is to understand how to manage the collaborative front end in manufacturing firms, with a particular focus on requirements, capabilities, and conditions.

To fulfill this research purpose, data on manufacturing firms were collected through four case studies and one survey. In total, this dissertation is based on empirical data from 81 interviews with R&D members across 10 medium-sized and large manufacturing firms, as well as a survey of 146 small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. Respondents were based in Brazil or Sweden. The key theories and literature covered include coordination modes, control mechanisms, organizational routines, the resource-based view, and appropriability mechanisms.

This dissertation makes several contributions. First, it extends the front-end literature by presenting the concepts of systematic idea generation and fuzziness assessment as a prerequisite for improving front-end performance. Second, this dissertation lists collaboration conditions that help firms cooperate better with science-based partners. By collaborating with science-based partners, firms  can access codified and tacit scientific knowledge, enabling them to rapidly build on the latest research insights. The findings suggest particular practices that can be applied to reduce cultural differences and diminish goal divergence among project members. Third, this dissertation describes a set of detailed practices to streamline the involvement of different types of partners using diverse appropriability mechanisms. Ultimately, a theoretical framework is developed to describe how to manage the collaborative front end of innovation. The theoretical framework explains how manufacturing firms can use their organizational capabilities to efficiently and safely develop new product ideas. In particular, the framework identifies the necessary capabilities to explore mechanisms, practices, and routines in terms of divergent thinking, external expertise, and multiple opinions. Altogether, these contributions will assist firms to better manage collaborative front end.

Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Luleå: Luleå University of Technology, 2018. p. 250
Series
Doctoral thesis / Luleå University of Technology, ISSN 1402-1544
Keywords
front end of innovation, collaboration
National Category
Other Engineering and Technologies
Identifiers
urn:nbn:se:hh:diva-38383 (URN)978-91-7790-152-5 (ISBN)978-91-7790-153-2 (ISBN)
Public defence
2018-06-19, A109, Universitetsområdet, Luleå, 09:30 (English)
Opponent
Supervisors
Available from: 2019-02-08 Created: 2018-11-20 Last updated: 2025-02-10Bibliographically approved

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Gama, FábioFrishammar, Johan

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