Innovation culture in established firms

By Anniken Holst and Nora Rogne

27 January 2020 10:03

Innovation culture in established firms

A qualitative case study that investigates how established firms can develop an innovation culture through three embedded case studies within one organisation.

Anniken Holst and Nora Rogne. Private photo
Anniken Holst and Nora Rogne. Private photo

Technological development and changing consumer trends have led modern businesses to increasingly introduce agility and innovation as drivers for competitiveness.

While established firms may possess an advantage due to their size and diverse competence, they face a series of challenges when trying to become more innovative.

This qualitative case study investigates how established firms can develop an innovation culture through three embedded case studies within one organisation.

It investigates how different organisational approaches to innovation, such as ambidextrous solutions and cross functional teams, influence the overall innovation culture in an organisation.

We identified specific and comparative strengths and limitations of each approach. These include factors such as time horizon, required resources, support and influence.

We also identified some organisational factors, and similarities and traits that were true regardless of the approach, but derived as a result of innovative initiatives and engagements such as the ones investigated in this thesis.

Particularly, the physical space and facilitation of a sharing culture and social interactions had a huge impact on the creation of innovation culture in an unformal matter.

The ambidextrous solution enhances more radical innovation because it is separate from the established firm, but takes longer to influence the overall innovation culture. Cross-functional teams exert greater influence on the overall culture, but also meet some challenges as they are typically not co-located.

Therefore, our overall conclusion indicates that an organisation should assess its existing strengths and desired areas and pace of improvement when deciding structure of innovative initiatives to facilitate their innovation culture.

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