Notes
Management of Digital Innovation
MSc DBI
Week 1
Module 1: Basic properties of digital innovation
Topic: Nature of Digital Technologies
Nambisa et al 2017: DIM - Reinventing Innovation Management Research in a Digital World
Digital innovation → the use of digital technology during the process of innovating
Key questions and their current assumptions of Innov Management Theories:
1) How do innovations form/evole?
→ innovation is a well-bounded phenomenon focus
2) How should actors/entities organize for innovation?
→ innovation agencies can be used to organize for innovation
3) How does the nature of innovation and the org of innov interact?
→ these two are different, thus the interaction can be explicitly theorized
HOWEVER, these assumptions are being increasingly challenged, below is research challenging
these assumptions:
1) Is innovation a well bounded phenomenon?
- Innovation used to be seen as a well-defined process but digital products can
update/evolve after theyre launched (patches, updates) thus, harder to set boundaries.
- Different stages of innov can overlap now, 3D printing or cloud computing can allow
quick experimentation, digital tech has made innov more flexible and dynamic instigating
new theories to understand it
2) Can innovation agency be predefined?
- Innov is becoming less controlled and more collaborative (disitributed innov)
- Ex of Distributed innovation is open source code, its free to the public and they can
change or improve the code without control of the initial coder (by using crowdsourcing
platforms like github or stackoverflow) thus, we need more research on the new
collective interaction aspect of innovation
, 3) Can Studies of Innovation Processes and Outcomes Focus on One and Not on the Other?
- Traditionally, studies on inov focusd on the process or outcome, not both
- Digital age made the connection between process and outcome more dynamic
THEREFORE, 4 theoretical concepts that can help researchers understand and study
digital innovation:
1) Dynamic Problem-Solution Design Pairing
- Look how problems and solutions continuously evolve and match up
- Ex: apple continually match new problems (out of date camera tech) with evolving
solutions (new cam technology)
2) Socio-Cognitive Sensemaking
- Fluidity of innovation boundaries and diversity of actors involved and how this affects
innovation processes and outcomes
- Ex: Facebook was initially friends connecting but evolved into powerful marketing tools,
where info is spread
3) Technology Affordances and Constraints
- How features of digital tools can promote or restrict innov
- Ex: Instragram, can use filters and share apps, but constraint is square image format
(limiting creative posts?)
4) Orchestration
- Coordination of activities and actors in digital innov processes
- Ex: Airbnb, orchestrates and exchange between guests and landlord
Yoo et al 2017 - Organizing for Innovation in the Digitized World
Pervasive digital technology innovations have two main characteristics:
1) Convergence (blending different technologies)
a) Combining User Experiences (connect tv and mobile phone users)
b) Embedding Digital Tech (creation of ‘smart products’ (phone can call+photos)
c) Bringing Together Industries (software company skype competes with phone)
2) Generativity (creating new things from existing elements)
, a) Reprogrammable Nature (new tech can improve/update after its created too)
b) Wakes of Innovation (digital tools create ripple effect of how orgs work,
instigated new types of contracts in 3D visualization of construction)
c) Digital Traces (digital tech leaves behind data, this data can be used for new
innovations like jogging data can create personalized training plans)
SO, due to this new pervasive digital technology, innovation processes and outcomes are being
transformed in three key ways:
1) Digital Technology Platforms
- Platforms are being created to serve as foundations for other companies to create
complementary products/services on (app store, but apple still controls it)
2) Distributed Innovations
- Innovation now has less boundaries, creativity and problem-solving can happen across
many orgs (open innovation using wikipedia, everyone can contribute)
3) Combinatorial Innovation
- New products/services are created by combining existing modules/tools such as smart
home tech combining smart thermostat with amazon alexa and security etc)
Topic: Digital Platforms
Edelman, B. (2015) - How to launch your digital platform.
When building your own platform, ask these 5 questions:
1) Can I attract a large group of users at once?
a) To do so, one of the two needs to be true:
i) The company already has the users it needs on another platform
(googles adsense)
ii) User data is publicly available
(zillow collecting data of house prices from government websites)
2) Can I offer stand-alone value?
(if cant attract lots of ppl, provide value for users even if no one else is on the platform)
a) To do so, consider 2 strategies:
i) Start with an industry niche
(Yelp reviews all restaurants now, but it started with ethnic food in
SanFran and soon offered discounts, accepting reservations, etc)
Management of Digital Innovation
MSc DBI
Week 1
Module 1: Basic properties of digital innovation
Topic: Nature of Digital Technologies
Nambisa et al 2017: DIM - Reinventing Innovation Management Research in a Digital World
Digital innovation → the use of digital technology during the process of innovating
Key questions and their current assumptions of Innov Management Theories:
1) How do innovations form/evole?
→ innovation is a well-bounded phenomenon focus
2) How should actors/entities organize for innovation?
→ innovation agencies can be used to organize for innovation
3) How does the nature of innovation and the org of innov interact?
→ these two are different, thus the interaction can be explicitly theorized
HOWEVER, these assumptions are being increasingly challenged, below is research challenging
these assumptions:
1) Is innovation a well bounded phenomenon?
- Innovation used to be seen as a well-defined process but digital products can
update/evolve after theyre launched (patches, updates) thus, harder to set boundaries.
- Different stages of innov can overlap now, 3D printing or cloud computing can allow
quick experimentation, digital tech has made innov more flexible and dynamic instigating
new theories to understand it
2) Can innovation agency be predefined?
- Innov is becoming less controlled and more collaborative (disitributed innov)
- Ex of Distributed innovation is open source code, its free to the public and they can
change or improve the code without control of the initial coder (by using crowdsourcing
platforms like github or stackoverflow) thus, we need more research on the new
collective interaction aspect of innovation
, 3) Can Studies of Innovation Processes and Outcomes Focus on One and Not on the Other?
- Traditionally, studies on inov focusd on the process or outcome, not both
- Digital age made the connection between process and outcome more dynamic
THEREFORE, 4 theoretical concepts that can help researchers understand and study
digital innovation:
1) Dynamic Problem-Solution Design Pairing
- Look how problems and solutions continuously evolve and match up
- Ex: apple continually match new problems (out of date camera tech) with evolving
solutions (new cam technology)
2) Socio-Cognitive Sensemaking
- Fluidity of innovation boundaries and diversity of actors involved and how this affects
innovation processes and outcomes
- Ex: Facebook was initially friends connecting but evolved into powerful marketing tools,
where info is spread
3) Technology Affordances and Constraints
- How features of digital tools can promote or restrict innov
- Ex: Instragram, can use filters and share apps, but constraint is square image format
(limiting creative posts?)
4) Orchestration
- Coordination of activities and actors in digital innov processes
- Ex: Airbnb, orchestrates and exchange between guests and landlord
Yoo et al 2017 - Organizing for Innovation in the Digitized World
Pervasive digital technology innovations have two main characteristics:
1) Convergence (blending different technologies)
a) Combining User Experiences (connect tv and mobile phone users)
b) Embedding Digital Tech (creation of ‘smart products’ (phone can call+photos)
c) Bringing Together Industries (software company skype competes with phone)
2) Generativity (creating new things from existing elements)
, a) Reprogrammable Nature (new tech can improve/update after its created too)
b) Wakes of Innovation (digital tools create ripple effect of how orgs work,
instigated new types of contracts in 3D visualization of construction)
c) Digital Traces (digital tech leaves behind data, this data can be used for new
innovations like jogging data can create personalized training plans)
SO, due to this new pervasive digital technology, innovation processes and outcomes are being
transformed in three key ways:
1) Digital Technology Platforms
- Platforms are being created to serve as foundations for other companies to create
complementary products/services on (app store, but apple still controls it)
2) Distributed Innovations
- Innovation now has less boundaries, creativity and problem-solving can happen across
many orgs (open innovation using wikipedia, everyone can contribute)
3) Combinatorial Innovation
- New products/services are created by combining existing modules/tools such as smart
home tech combining smart thermostat with amazon alexa and security etc)
Topic: Digital Platforms
Edelman, B. (2015) - How to launch your digital platform.
When building your own platform, ask these 5 questions:
1) Can I attract a large group of users at once?
a) To do so, one of the two needs to be true:
i) The company already has the users it needs on another platform
(googles adsense)
ii) User data is publicly available
(zillow collecting data of house prices from government websites)
2) Can I offer stand-alone value?
(if cant attract lots of ppl, provide value for users even if no one else is on the platform)
a) To do so, consider 2 strategies:
i) Start with an industry niche
(Yelp reviews all restaurants now, but it started with ethnic food in
SanFran and soon offered discounts, accepting reservations, etc)
