• Understanding of the theories, concepts and key findings of the empirical literature of the course curriculum
• Ability to apply analytical tools and to assess their usefulness
• Skillfulness in carrying out a small empirical project
• Aptitude in drawing on readings from the course curriculum for the preparation and execution of this project
• Ability to use insights from the course curriculum to build an analytical understanding of the empirical project and related practical implications
• Ability to reflect on possible discrepancies between theories, concepts and key findings of the empirical literature and the empirical project

Project report related to identifying an innovation-relevant problem, designing an (open) innovation project for solving it, discussing organizational antecedents that may block or support the implementation of their project and addressing relevant aspects of innovation marketing, developed individually, to be handed in on a predefined date. Students will receive online coaching sessions for developing their (open) innovation projects. 

Grading will be done according to the learning objectives and the exam evaluation criteria for this course.

Course content and structure:

The objective of this course is to build the knowledge and skills needed to manage innovation projects along the entire innovation process from idea generation to implementation, and to help students develop an understanding of the central challenges and available solutions involved in organizing for innovation and incorporating a market-orientation throughout the innovation process. The course is specifically devoted to taking an in-depth look at how innovation can be managed across organizational boundaries and thus focuses on Open Innovation

Rapid advances in information and communication technologies, increased technological complexity, increased customer demands, higher labor mobility and shorter product life cycles have triggered new forms of managing, organizing and marketing innovation. These forms can be characterized by being more open, distributed, collaborative, and democratized than traditional models of innovation. More and more companies are experimenting with such new forms in order to leverage widely distributed sources of innovation for their innovation efforts. In this course students will learn about how to manage the exploration of a wide range of internal and external sources for innovative opportunities, how to integrate the results of this exploration with firm capabilities and resources, how to exploit these opportunities through multiple channels, how to develop organizational designs for doing so and how to keep a market orientation throughout the innovation process for reducing market failure of new products or services.  The course is specifically devoted to taking an in-depth look at how innovation can be managed across organizational boundaries and emphasizes the role and value of Open Innovation.

The course is divided into three parts and will cover the following topics:

Part 1: Managing innovation * Models and processes for open vs. closed innovation * Distributed sources of innovation * The role of users in developing innovation * Open innovation search and collaboration tools * Selected open innovation methods for outbound, inbound and coupled innovation processes (such as e.g., crowdsourcing)

Part 2: Organizing for innovation * Organizational antecedents of innovation * Organizational designs for innovation (structural and contextual arrangements) * Organizational inertia and resistance to innovation * Ambidexterity * Incentives for (open) innovation * Absorptive capacity

Part 3: Marketing innovation * Reducing the risk of market failure * Generating and launching innovations on the basis of proactive market orientation * Transforming market insights into concepts, prototypes and products/services that meet the demand of future markets * Challenges involved in communicating and promoting innovation * Tools and techniques for market launch and sales of new products and services

After this course, students shall have developed knowledge on:

• Distributed sources of innovation
• Open vs. closed innovation processes and models
• Inbound, outbound and coupled open innovation processes
• Organizational antecedents of (open) innovation
• Organizational designs for (open) innovation
• Open innovation methods and tools
• Market orientation in innovation projects
• Marketing methods and tools for (open) innovation

 After this course, students shall have developed the following skills:

• Skills in innovation project design and management
• Skills in aligning innovation problems with (open) innovation methods/tools for solving them
• Skills in market launch and sales of new products and services
• Skills in mastering core organizational challenges in innovation

After this course, students shall have developed the following competences:

• Searching for knowledge inputs to innovation projects across widely distributed sources
• Managing knowledge flows for generating innovation across organizational boundaries
• Assessing, developing and improving an organization’s “fitness” for (open) innovation
• Aligning innovation activities with the needs of actual and potential customers

Available via Canvas