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2019/2020  BA-BHAAV5006U  Innovation Management

English Title
Innovation Management

Course information

Language English
Course ECTS 7.5 ECTS
Type Elective
Level Bachelor
Duration One Semester
Start time of the course Autumn, Third Quarter
Timetable Course schedule will be posted at calendar.cbs.dk
Max. participants 90
Study board
Study Board for BSc in Economics and Business Administration
Course coordinator
  • Valeria Giacomin - Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy (MPP)
Contact information: student hub
Main academic disciplines
  • Innovation
  • Management
Teaching methods
  • Face-to-face teaching
Last updated on 23-03-2020

Relevant links

Learning objectives
During the course, students will learn about managing innovation within established firms.

Having completed the course students should acquire knowledge about models, concepts and theories within innovation management. The students should also be able to apply theories, models, and concepts when analyzing problems and challenges involved in managing the innovation process within established firms. The aim of the course is also to enable the students to understand, analyze and improve innovation management processes and innovation management in established firms. The students should also be able to discuss and reflect on the theories, models and concepts from the course.

Therefore, the high grade (12) in the exam is characterized by fulfilling the following criteria:
  • The student demonstrates a high level of command of the syllabus
  • The student is able to apply theories, models, and concepts from the syllabus in a systematic and thorough manner when analyzing and discussing problems and cases within innovation management
  • The student is able to analyze a problem or case from the field of innovation management using multiple theories, models, and concepts
  • The student is able to analyze a case or problem in a comprehensive manner by combining different theories, concepts and models
  • The student is able to discuss and reflect on the applicability and practical value of innovation management theories, models, and concepts in a structured and comprehensive manner
Course prerequisites
No specific requirements – however the students are required to have basic knowledge of organizational theory

Please note that the elective course is reserved for HA students who wish to write their bachelor project in this elective course.
Examination
Innovation Management:
Exam ECTS 7,5
Examination form Home assignment - written product
Individual or group exam Individual exam
Size of written product Max. 10 pages
Assignment type Written assignment
Duration 24 hours to prepare
Grading scale 7-point grading scale
Examiner(s) One internal examiner
Exam period Winter and Spring
Make-up exam/re-exam
Same examination form as the ordinary exam
Course content, structure and pedagogical approach

The course focuses on creating and managing innovation in established firms. During the course, students will be introduced to a number of models and concepts to innovation management within established firms.

 

Throughout the course, special emphasis will be given to five core managerial challenges in innovation management.

 

Firstly, the course will focus on the management of disruptive or radical innovations. Here the firm is faced by a situation characterized by high levels of uncertainty and complexity as the company for example implement new technologies or is facing disruptions. This typically implies that the company has to abandon existing routines, competencies, and dominant logics in order to adapt to a changed situation

 

Secondly, the course will focus value innovation and the development of new and innovative business models. Innovation is not just about creating new technologies and products, but also about creating customer value through innovative business models.

 

Thirdly, the course will investigate innovation from a process perspective. In connection herewith recognizing that, the innovation process is not predictable, linear, and sequential process, but a complex, iterative and dynamic process.

 

Fourthly, the course will address the managerial and organizational challenges involved in managing different types of innovation within the firm (for example: disruptive versus sustaining innovation or radical versus incrementatal incremental innovation).

 

Lastly, attention will be given to the managerial challenges involved in applying the contingency perspective when practicing innovation management. The contingency perspective implies that there is no one best way to manage innovation as the optimal management approach will depend particular situation faced by the firm.

 

The course will include topics such as:

  • Managing the innovation process from idea generation to market creation
  • Different types of innovation and their implications for management of the innovation process
  • Managing disruptive and radical innovation
  • Managing business model innovation
  • Use of technologies in the innovation process
  • Agile innovation processes
  • Managing Innovation in a globalized and networked world
  • Open Innovation
  • Developing innovations for "Bottom of the Pyramid" markets
  • Managing Innovation in Services and the Public Sector
  • Characteristics of the innovative organization
  • Engaging users and customers in the innovation process

 

Each of these topics will shed light on different managerial challenges involved in managing innovation successfully.

 

This course will complement the mandatory BSc courses by addressing two different issues.

  • The course will focus on the concrete managerial tasks, processes, and challenges in connection with the management of innovation within the established firm – adopting a firm level perspective on the management of innovation.
  • The course will in some situations seek to challenge and discuss the dominant rational and analytical management models being taught in many mandatory BSc courses. The management of innovation will in some situations require that the rational methods for analysis are supplemented by other means in order to deal with the high levels of uncertainty characterizing the earliest phases in the life-cycle of an innovation. 

 

Description of the teaching methods
The primary teaching method is based on lectures combined with and followed by guided classroom discussions, group and case discussions. Cases and exam questions from previous exams will be used throughout the course. Furthermore, the course will, if possible, include a few guest speakers with practical experiences in managing innovation.
Feedback during the teaching period
Feedback will be provided to the students in the following manners:

1) During the course a number of exam questions from previous exams will be discussed in small groups. This will typically be followed by a discussion of the answers in class. The teacher will provide feedback to the students about the quality of the answers to these previous exam questions.

2) The students will receive feedback as the teacher will provide exemplary answers to previous exams.

3) The teacher is available for feedback to students who are working with answering exams from previous years or have questions in general. This feedback is to given ad-hoc during the course.

4) In one of the final sessions of the course the teacher will provide information about the expectations to the exam – including how the students should answer exam questions.
Student workload
Deltagelse i klasseundervisning 36 hours
Deltagelse i eksamen 4 hours
Forberedelse til eksamen 40 hours
Forberedelse til klasseundervisning 145 hours
Expected literature

The literature-base of the course will consist of a mix between selected chapters from books and textbooks on innovation management as well as conceptual scientific papers. The book chapters are provided by the teacher and the scientific papers can be downloaded from the library. 
 

Examples of texts in the curriculum can be found the list below. The list does not represent the complete curriculum for the course:

 

Selected chapters from:

Osterwalder, A. & Pigneur, Y (2010): Business Model Innovation, John Viley & Sons

Schilling, M.A. (2014): Strategic Management of Technological Innovation, 4th International Edition

Goffin, K. & Mitchell, R, (2017): Innovation Management – Effective Strategy and Implementation, Palgrave, 2017,

Van de Ven. A.H., Polley, D.E., Garud, R. & Venkataraman, S. (1999): The Innovation Journey, Oxford University Press

 

Dodgson, M.; Gann, D.M. & Phillips, N. (2014): The Oxford Handbook of Innovation Management, Oxford Universit Press.

Examples of Scientific papers:

 

Zott, C. & Amit, R. (2010):  Business Model Design: An Activity System Perspective, Long Range Planning, Vol. 43 Iss 2–3


Cooper, R. G. (2016). Agile–Stage-Gate Hybrids: The Next Stage for Product Development Blending Agile and Stage-Gate methods can provide flexibility, speed, and improved communication in new-product development. Research-Technology Management, Vol 59 No 1, pp. 21-29.

 

Kim, W.C. & Mauborgne, R. (2005): Blue Ocean Strategy: From Theory to Practice, California Management Review, Spring 2005, Vol. 47.No.3. pp 105-121.

 

 

Last updated on 23-03-2020