Mobile data innovation: Lucio and the cyclic innovation model

New developments in the mobile telecom industry, such as growing transmission bandwidth and sector-crossing business alliances, change the way in which mobile telco's are innovating. Traditional innovation models, such as the single-company linear model ('pipeline model'), do not no longer describe how innovation occurs today. An alternative is the boundary-crossing Cyclic Innovation Model (CIM). It considers innovation processes as coupled 'cycles of change', connecting science with business, and with markets, in a cyclic manner. CIM has been applied to 'Lucio', a mobile data product-service combination introduced into the Dutch market by KPN Mobile. The analysis shows that CIM provides insight into the complex network of companies involved, making clear how each company contributes functionality that together constitutes the innovation. CIM may be considered an addition to the growing family of fourth-generation innovation models.