Managing disruptive innovations through co-innovation processes

Abstract

Increasingly companies are facing tough challenges due to fast paced technological developments, shortening product life cycles and new forms of business models. Therefore innovating is crucial for companies to stay competitive and enter new markets. Large corporations have difficulty in breaking silos and developing breakthrough innovations due to pressures in the form of financial performance and resistance to change. It seems that due to volatility of markets and technological developments, companies need to “join the race” in order to survive. For the purpose of benefitting the innovation space network companies can interact with external parties. Research shows that collaboration with external actors lead to sources of higher innovation performance. Nevertheless, the innovation process is very intricate as it involves many complex interactions and challenges. Innovation depends on people´s expertise, capabilities and creative capacities. Companies need to recognize this and provide an environment that can foster innovation.

Infineon Technologies AG Corporate Supply Chain Innovation department recognizes the need to innovate in a peripheries of its core technological developments. The department is involved in several co-funded European projects which aim towards digitalization improvements.

The main company´s objective is to explore ways to better coordinate relationships between partners, to find ways to innovate and to foster knowledge management practices. Since the firm wants to improve its innovation performance, certain processes need to be develop to stimulate innovation. Infineon Technologies AG does not have processes for managing disruptive innovations therefore is in need to design a model that would enable the company to manage them, the main objective of this master thesis is to design:
A model which prescribes processes for management of disruptive innovations between firms, on a case study of Infineon Technologies AG Corporate Supply Chain Innovation department.
In order to reach objective of this master thesis, a following main research question is formulated:
How to facilitate inter-firm innovation management processes of disruptive innovations in the context of Infineon Technologies AG Corporate Supply Chain Innovation Department?
The thesis project takes a Design Science Project approach and is divided into five phases: 1) research motivation 2) requirements definition through exploration of theoretical foundation 3) design and development of the artefact 4) demonstration of the artefact through validation and 5) evaluation and conclusion.
The overall conclusion for this thesis is: in order to facilitate inter-firm innovation management processes of disruptive innovations Infineon Technologies Corporate Supply Chain Innovation department should implement co-innovation management practices. The co – innovation model has a network structure composed of co-creation, collaboration, innovation platform and convergence affordances. By expanding these elements to its practical implications, the company is able to implement a comprehensive and implementable solution. Scenario with actionable steps was developed as a recommendation for the company.