Understanding the fuel of innovation - A comparative case study on the role and importance of organisational and individual knowledge in the idea generation process in high and low organisational knowledge environments

Sammanfattning: Date of the seminar: May 23rd, 2018 Course: ENTN39 Master’s Corporate Entrepreneurship and Innovation Internship and degree project (Master’s thesis 15 ECTS) Authors: Matilda Ljudén & Maximilian Schmidt Supervisor: Joakim Winborg Examiner: Sotaro Shibayama Keywords: Front End Innovation, Idea Generation, Creativity, Knowledge, Knowledge Management, Innovation, Social Networks, Explorative Innovation, Exploitative Innovation Research question: How does the role and importance of individual and organisational knowledge differs in the stages of idea generation in high versus low organisational knowledge environments? Methodology: The research was conducted as a qualitative comparative case study. The research followed an abductive approach with tendencies towards a more deductive approach. The main source of collected data were semi-structured interviews. Recommendations from Gioia et al. (2013) and Eisenhardt (1989) were used to analyze the data to generate a concept and the grounded theory model. Theoretical perspectives: To understand the context of this study, the literature of front-end innovation and idea generation was reviewed. The literature on creativity, knowledge, explorative/exploitative innovation strategies and social networks was utilized to describe the underlying concepts of idea generation. Conclusions: Research must consider two dimensions to truly understand the idea generation process. These two dimensions are organisational knowledge environment and the specific idea generation stages. Only by considering both dimensions the complexity of this field can be reflected sufficiently. By doing that a more detailed and nuanced picture of how the role and importance of individual and organisational knowledge significantly differs can be drawn. Based on this nuanced picture it can be concluded, that the role and importance of organisational and individual knowledge in the idea generation process differs significantly. Therefore, innovation management asks for focused attention towards differentiated knowledge utilization during the idea generation process.