International Journal of Innovation Management

Design thinking has gained popularity in the corporate context. It has already proven to be a valuable approach to problem-solving within an organisation, but research has neglected its impact on external partnerships. Since most researchers use qualitative research designs, there is little quantitative empirical evidence on design thinking. This study applies a multi-informant survey design that considers the project and the organisational level. Based on 212 projects in 78 companies, we examine the relationship between design thinking and the external collaboration quality and overall project success. Further, we evaluate structural, cultural, and task-related contingencies. Our results suggest that design thinking as a collaborative and empathic problem-solving approach strengthens external collaboration quality enhancing overall project success. Team continuity positively moderates this relationship. This study contributes to the existing literature in design thinking and open innovation by proposing the design thinking methodology as a valuable approach in inter-organisational relationships.

This paper investigates the impact of aesthetics in early game development based on a quantitative analysis of 367 early access games. We identified the relationship between aesthetic perception in early video games reflected in the user reviews, comments, and subsequent positive and negative video game recommendations over time. We find that customer co-creation in product innovation is increasingly negative feedback over time when the game’s aesthetic early impression is perceived as negative. The implications for innovation management are that aesthetics design impacts the response to customer-ready prototypes. Managers should take the aesthetic design and user perception in early development into account and not delay the attention to aesthetics to a later product release stage.

Previous research has increased our understanding of digital transformation (DT) and digital business ecosystems as independent topics. Less is known about how DT unfolds in digital business ecosystems. Such collaborative creation of digital innovations is affected by individual actors and by ecosystem as a whole. Based on an empirical case study of an ecosystem facilitator company and its digital business ecosystems as embedded cases, this paper contributes to the understanding of key success factors in new digital business ecosystems. The findings support collaborative governance as an important tool in leading the DT among multiple partners. Moreover, the findings present the concept of a common rulebook, including the practices, principles, guidelines, tools, handshakes, and boundaries, as an enabler for ways of working in an ecosystem. Managers can use this paper to increase their understanding on the governance of digital business ecosystems and to clarify their organisational expectations when participating in joint endeavours involving DT.

Changes in regulation trigger changes in the innovation environments. They may block specific development trajectories, but they may simultaneously inspire and stimulate completely new openings. In this study, we look into regulation that aims to address environmental problems and facilitate creation and diffusion of sustainable technologies and processes as we examine the responses of innovators to the regulation on plastic use and production—specifically, the so-called SUP-directive. A multiple-case study comprising six companies suggests that companies manage (with) the regulation-induced innovation and needs for change by adopting three distinctive strategies: (1) proactive change orientation, (2) reactive opportunity capturing, or (3) reactive survival mode. Acknowledging that sustainability-oriented regulation may push companies with environmentally friendly innovation activities and solutions towards reactive survival mode highlights the need for managerial agility in adjusting the solutions and the ability to adopt parallel innovation strategies. Observing the strategies adopted by innovators also is informative when evaluating whether the regulation meets its profound goals and intended effects.

Within the research field of innovation management, the so-called circular-oriented innovations are focused on combining circular economy tenets within the development of innovation. Even though academia agrees that an economic transition has to develop from the bottom up, studying the implementation of circular economy on micro-level has been thus far neglected. Thus, the paper examines the circular-oriented innovation specific activities within the general innovation process and its distinct phases. Via multiple case study, the paper analyses the development of innovations suitable for the biological cycle of circular economy in the industry of biodegradable plastic substitutes. The findings show that circular economy aspects influence the innovation development from its very beginning. Starting from the triggering of idea generation, the end-of-life considerations and material choice show high importance in the front-end of innovation. Moreover, the research shows the high importance of cross-cycle and cross-sector collaborations throughout the entire development process.

Actor-network theory (ANT) represents a research paradigm applicable to innovation management (IM) research. Its unique ontology of second-degree objectivity through symmetry can be combined with many research contexts, methods, and concepts. This paper summarises the insights from a literature review of 299 Web of Science articles on both ANT and IM. The meta-features of all articles are analysed to identify 25 articles for in-depth analysis. Three ANT literature streams are identified: descriptive, managerial proactive, and participatory proactive. These three streams are found to differ in terms of their specific methods, concepts, and research contexts. An additional subset of the 10 most cited articles is used to validate the findings. We suggest that IM researchers should select a specific ANT approach based on the context and the theorised hypothesis of their research. Knowledge of the options within ANT and how they can be applied to different IM contexts can help IM researchers in maximising research outcomes.

Contemporary innovation management studies on collaboration dynamics and value appropriation lack coherent theoretical articulations and underlying conceptual foundations. It is challenging to manage collaborative value creation without a proper understanding of the dynamic connections between collaboration for and appropriation of innovation. This study conducts a systematic literature review to uncover the dynamic connections between innovation-related value appropriation and collaboration. Topic modelling, a machine-learning-based text analysis method, is applied to a corpus of 270 scholarly articles to uncover relevant elements. Additionally, 77 articles are selected for an in-depth content analysis to examine the elements in a more detailed manner. With these steps, the study contributes to the literature by illustrating and elaborating the role of dynamics of collaboration in value appropriation, and vice versa.