Framing new product innovations: How to make sense of internal and external insights

This study examines: How experts make sense of internal and external insights when they create new product innovations. It focuses on the experts’ reasoning; and suggests a model for internal/external sense-making based on framing theory. The model is tested in three emblematic cases in respectively B&O, Coloplast & Vipp. The study reveals, that experts make sense by reapplying frames from previous internal products as well as adopt frames from external inspirational products. Hereby they both create coherency with the brand, but also update the product to match new emerging values and trends.

[1]  G. Calabretta,et al.  A cross‐cultural assessment of leading values in design‐oriented companies , 2008 .

[2]  Roberto Verganti,et al.  Collaborative Strategies in Design-intensive Industries: Knowledge Diversity and Innovation , 2010 .

[3]  Claudia Acklin.  Design‐Driven Innovation Process Model , 2010 .

[4]  A. Arora,et al.  COMPLEMENTARITY AND EXTERNAL LINKAGES: THE STRATEGIES OF THE LARGE FIRMS IN BIOTECHNOLOGY* , 1990 .

[5]  C. H. Dorst,et al.  Frame Innovation: Create New Thinking by Design , 2015 .

[6]  Will Mitchell,et al.  Innovating Through Acquisition and Internal Development: A Quarter-Century of Boundary Evolution at Johnson & Johnson , 2004 .

[7]  Rachelle C. Sampson.  R&D Alliances & Firm Performance: The Impact of Technological Diversity and Alliance Organization on Innovation , 2003 .

[8]  Reinhilde Veugelers,et al.  In Search of Complementarity in Innovation Strategy: Internal R&D and External Knowledge Acquisition , 2006, Manag. Sci..

[9]  Araújo,et al.  An Evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .

[10]  Karin Fladmoe-Lindquist,et al.  Breakthrough innovations in the U.S. biotechnology industry: the effects of technological space and geographic origin , 2006 .

[11]  B. Flyvbjerg.  Five Misunderstandings About Case-Study Research , 2006, 1304.1186.

[12]  Lori Rosenkopf.  BEYOND LOCAL SEARCH : BOUNDARY-SPANNING , EXPLORATION AND IMPACT IN THE OPTICAL DISC INDUSTRY Running Head : “ Beyond Local Search ” , 2000 .

[13]  D. Schoen.  The Reflective Practitioner , 1983 .

[14]  Ac Rianne Valkenburg,et al.  The reflective practice of design teams , 1998 .

[15]  Kees Dorst,et al.  The core of ‘design thinking’ and its application , 2011 .

[16]  A. Nerkar,et al.  Beyond local search: boundary‐spanning, exploration, and impact in the optical disk industry , 2001 .

[17]  Donald A. Schön,et al.  Frame Reflection: Toward The Resolution Of Intractable Policy Controversies , 1994 .

[18]  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt,et al.  Theory Building From Cases: Opportunities And Challenges , 2007 .

[19]  M. Feldman,et al.  Fishing upstream: Firm innovation strategy and university research alliances , 2007 .

[20]  H. Rittel,et al.  Dilemmas in a general theory of planning , 1973 .

[21]  Andrea Filippetti,et al.  Innovation modes and design as a source of innovation: a firm‐level analysis , 2011 .

[22]  J. A. Buijs.  The Delft Innovation Method: A Design Thinker's Guide to Innovation , 2012 .

[23]  K. Weick.  Making Sense of the Organization , 2000 .

[24]  J. Marshall.  Open Innovation: The New Imperative for Creating and Profiting from Technology , 2004 .

[25]  L. Fleming.  Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search Lee Fleming , 2001 .

[26]  Richard Buchanan,et al.  Wicked Problems in Design Thinking , 1992 .

[27]  Roberto Verganti,et al.  Design-Driven Laboratories: Organization and Strategy of Laboratories Specialized in the Development of Radical Design-Driven Innovations , 2009 .

[28]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Fortune favors the prepared firm , 1994 .

[29]  L. M. Haase,et al.  REASONING IN THE FUZZY FRONT END OF INNOVATION: FRAMING THE PRODUCT DNA , 2018, International Journal of Innovation Management.

[30]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Dominant Designs: A Cyclical Model of Technological Change , 1990 .

[31]  R. Grant,et al.  Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 2022 .

[32]  Lori Rosenkopf,et al.  Overcoming Local Search Through Alliances and Mobility , 2003, Manag. Sci..

[33]  R. Stake.  The art of case study research , 1995 .