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This article analyses innovation management techniques (IMTs) or practices and their efficiency from a new perspective — stakeholder management — through three proxy models: environmental strategy, quality management, and corporate social responsibility. It also investigates the role of the Research and Development (R&D) function, particularly its critical position in adopting IMTs. It incorporates recent concepts such as co-innovation, design thinking, lean innovation, and artificial intelligence models. In this relationship, through a comprehensive literature review, this article develops a theoretical context to understand the evolution of the theory and practice of IMTs. This study draws on field research with data on 529 Spanish firms, their IMTs and stakeholders’ management practices, and their innovation results. Through a partial least squares (PLS) analysis, this study illustrates a model delineating the role of stakeholders’ focused management on the effect of IMTs on a firm’s innovation performance. This research concludes on the relevance of IMT use to the incremental innovation output of companies. The stakeholders’ management and R&D focus is supporting the innovation process. The main result is that incremental innovation is the path to radical innovation development. Thus, the findings conclude that a well-structured innovation system with precise stakeholder engagement underpins overall inventive activity inside firms. Various innovative approaches (IMTs) provide a systematic approach to invention, increasing the launch of successful ideas to the market.

Sustainability is a key societal challenge and has become an opportunity for innovation. While start-ups are prone to enter such new territories, established companies are more hesitant to leave current trajectories and embrace uncertainty linked to sustainability-oriented exploration. We present a case of a conventional high-tech firm of an owner-manager whose strong values of universalism led him to initialise a sustainability-oriented diversification by exploring renewable energy technologies. Our longitudinal study uncovers how changes in ambidextrous organisational design and represented managerial values ultimately resulted in failed exploration. Our contribution is threefold: First, we link individual-level managerial values of universalism with organisational-level phenomena of sustainability-oriented exploration and diversification. Second, we contribute to bridging hitherto mostly separate bodies of literature on sustainability-oriented innovation and ambidexterity to better understand how conventional firms can deploy their technological capabilities for sustainability. Third, we conceptualise the “separation drift” as fading organisational separation resulting in exploration failure.

The aim of this paper is to empirically study the impact of the motivation-enhancing practices of performance-based rewards and developmental performance appraisal on radical innovation. The effect of innovative work behaviour (IWB) is also considered as a mediator in this relationship. The paper also considers the effect of performance-based rewards and developmental performance appraisal on affective commitment and whether this mechanism can drive employees’ IWB. A survey questionnaire was used to collect data from employees working in the telecommunications, mining, pharmaceutical, banking and technological industries in Jordan. The final sample comprised 270 valid responses. Research hypotheses were tested via structural equation modelling (SEM) using AMOS v28 and PROCESS by Hayes to test the mediating effects. The paper found that IWB mediates the relationship between performance-based rewards, developmental performance appraisal and radical innovation because the subsequent effect of IWB on radical innovation was significant and positive. This is also confirmed by the mediation analysis. Findings showed support for the positive impact of performance-based rewards and developmental performance appraisal on affective commitment. Additionally, the findings confirmed that affective commitment mediates the relationship between performance-based rewards, developmental performance appraisal and IWB.

Sustainability is a key societal challenge and has become an opportunity for innovation. While start-ups are prone to enter such new territories, established companies are more hesitant to leave current trajectories and embrace uncertainty linked to sustainability-oriented exploration. We present a case of a conventional high-tech firm of an owner-manager whose strong values of universalism led him to initialise a sustainability-oriented diversification by exploring renewable energy technologies. Our longitudinal study uncovers how changes in ambidextrous organisational design and represented managerial values ultimately resulted in failed exploration. Our contribution is threefold: First, we link individual-level managerial values of universalism with organisational-level phenomena of sustainability-oriented exploration and diversification. Second, we contribute to bridging hitherto mostly separate bodies of literature on sustainability-oriented innovation and ambidexterity to better understand how conventional firms can deploy their technological capabilities for sustainability. Third, we conceptualise the “separation drift” as fading organisational separation resulting in exploration failure.