Disciplinary Perspectives on Innovation: Management
By James A. Cunningham, Newcastle Business School, UK, james.cunningham@northumbria.ac.uk | Grace S. Walsh, NUI Galway, Ireland
Abstract
Management scholars are focusing greater research attention on innovation within firms. Innovation is now viewed as critical for firms to maintain their competitiveness. In this paper our focus is to provide a management disciplinary perspective on innovation. In doing so we consider the purpose of innovation, some definitions of innovation and review some contemporary issues including management innovation, business model innovation, sources of innovation and open innovation. We then consider leadership, organizational culture and underground innovation before we conclude with some future research avenues. We suggest that management scholars should focus future research on innovation on managerial power dynamics, managerial support for underground innovation, managerial characteristics, experiences, leadership styles and behaviors of R&D managers and innovation failure.
Disciplinary Perspectives on Innovation
While innovation has emerged as a crucial topic, it remains a phenomenon and not an academic discipline. Just as for the more general theme of entrepreneurship, scholarship draws on a broad spectrum of academic disciplines to shed light on innovation from the particular scholarly discipline. The purpose of this title in Foundations and Trends in Entrepreneurship is to provide a disciplinary perspective on the role of innovation. In particular, this issue offers several distinct disciplinary perspectives including from the academic discipline of finance (“Financing Innovation: Challenges, Opportunities, and Trends” by Davide Hahn, Tommaso Minola, Silvio Vismara and Vincenzo De Stasio), from the entrepreneurship discipline (“Innovation in Schumpeter-Type Firms: Knowledge Collaboration or Knowledge Spillover? by Maksim Belitski), from the management perspective (“Disciplinary Perspectives on Innovation: Management” by James Cunningham et al.) and from the marketing discipline (“A Marketing Perspective on Innovation” by Jakki J. Mohr). Taken together these individual contributions make it clear that the topic of innovation is enriched by drawing on the insights and perspectives of a broad spectrum of scholarly disciplines.
Companion
Foundations and Trends® in Entrepreneurship, Volume 15, Issue 3-4 Special Issue: Disciplinary Perspectives on Innovation
See the other articles that are also part of this special issue.