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Innovation Labs
(2021)
Today's increasing pace of change and intense competition places demands on organizations to use a different approach to innovation, going beyond the incremental innovation that is typically developed within the core of the organization. As an option to escape the existing beliefs of the core organization, innovation labs are used to develop more discontinuous innovation. Despite the abundance of these so-called innovation labs in practice, researchers have devoted little effort to scrutinizing the concept and to provide managers with a framework for exploiting this form of innovation. In this paper, we aim to perform an empirical investigation and to create a consensus around the concept of innovation labs. To do so, we conducted a multiple case study in large international organizations with a total of 31 interviews of an average length of 70 minutes. We offer a framework by identifying four innovation lab types and consider when each is most appropriate. Furthermore, we highlight the importance for managers and their organizations to align the strategic intent with the innovation lab type as well as the interface between the innovation lab and the core business.
The corporate entrepreneur
(2016)
Corporate entrepreneurship is one tool for established companies to strengthen their capabilities for strategic renewal and innovativeness. The question, however, which factors are influencing the success of a corporate entrepreneurship initiative requires further attention. The corporate entrepreneur who is acting as both the leader of embedded entrepreneurial teams and linking pin to the corporate, is providing one possible perspective. Based on 6 interviews conducted in 6 German organizations this study contributes to the understanding of the role of the corporate entrepreneur and how this role can be distinguished from other roles in the context of innovation.
Guiding through the Fog
(2021)
Corporate Entrepreneurship (CE) programs are formalized efforts to realize entrepreneurial activities in established companies. Despite the growing and evolving landscape of CE programs, effectively managing them remains a challenging endeavor which results in disappointing outcomes and oftentimes leads to the early termination of such programs. We unmask the differences in goal setting of CE programs and highlight that setting appropriate goals is imperative for their desired outcomes. In practice, companies seem to struggle with the goal setting, and scholars have not yet fully solved the puzzle of goals setting in the context of CE programs either. Therefore, we set out to explore the current state of goal setting in the context of CE programs building upon 61 semi-structured interviews with CE program executives from cross-industry companies with different sizes. Our study contributes to a better understanding of goal setting in the context of CE programs by (1) characterizing the goal setting of CE programs based on goal attributes and goal types and (2) identifying differences among the goal setting of CE programs. We provide implications to practice for a more effective management of CE programs and conclude with a discussion for future research on the impact of the different goal settings.
In today's volatile world, established companies must be capable of optimizing their core business with incremental innovations while simultaneously developing discontinuous innovations to maintain their long-term competitiveness. Balancing both is a major challenge for companies, since different types of innovation require different organizational structures, operational modes and management styles. Established companies tend to excel in improving their current business through incremental innovations which are closely related to their current knowledge base and competencies. However, this often goes hand in hand with challenges in the exploration of knowledge that is new to the company and that is essential for the development of discontinuous innovations. In this respect, the concept of corporate entrepreneurship is recognized as a way to strengthen the exploration of new knowledge and to support the development of discontinuous innovation. For managing corporate entrepreneurship more effectively, it is crucial to understand which types of knowledge can be created through corporate entrepreneurship and which organizational designs are more suited to gain certain types of knowledge. To answer these questions, this study analyzed 23 semi-structured interviews conducted with established companies that are running such entrepreneurial activities. The results show (1) that three general types of knowledge can be explored through corporate entrepreneurship and (2) that some organizational designs are more suited to explore certain knowledge types than others are.
Uncertainty about the future requires companies to create discontinuous innovations. Established companies, however, struggle to do so; whereas independent startups seem to better cope with this. Consequently, established companies set up entrepreneurial initiatives to make use of startups' benefits. Consequently, this led-amongst others-to great interest in socalled corporate entrepreneurship (CE) programs and to the development and characterization of several different forms. Their processes to achieve certain objectives, yet, are still rather ineffective. Thus, considerations of the actions performed in preparation for and during CE programs could be one approach to improve this but are still absent today. Furthermore, the increasing use of several CE programs in parallel seems to bear the potential for synergies and, thus, more efficient use of resources. Aiming to provide insights to both issues, this study analyzes actions of CE programs, by looking at interviews with managers of seven corporate incubators and accelerator programs of five established German tech-companies.
Der radikale Wandel im Unternehmensumfeld bringt Unsicherheit und Komplexität mit sich. Daher ist ein Paradigmenwechsel im Management gefordert, denn scheinbar bewährte Rezepte funktionieren nicht mehr. Dieses Kapitel zeigt dazu, wie Führung 4.0 oder Digital Leadership die notwendigen dynamischen Fähigkeiten in der Organisation implementiert. Darüber hinaus wird dargestellt, wie eine Kernherausforderung der digitalen Transformation für etablierte Unternehmen gelingen kann – Ambidextrie (Beidhändigkeit) umzusetzen. Anhand zahlreicher Praxisbeispiele wird beschrieben, wie diese Beidhändigkeit – gleichzeitig das Kerngeschäft effizient zu optimieren und durch strategische Innovation in neue Geschäfte zu wachsen – strategische Erneuerung und digitale Transformation ermöglicht. Es wird aufgezeigt, wie die notwendige Unternehmerorientierung (Entrepreneur Orientation) gestärkt und Corporate Entrepreneurship erfolgreich umgesetzt werden kann. Als konkrete Option der Implementierung werden dazu unternehmerische, agile Teams – sogenannte eingebettete Unternehmerteams oder Corporate Start-ups – beschrieben. Auf Basis unserer Befragung von ca. 2000 Tech-Unternehmen und der Auswertung von mehr als 5000 Interviewminuten mit Geschäftsführern und Innovationsverantwortlichen in über 40 Unternehmen werden Empfehlungen zu Aufbau und Führung dieser Teams sowie kritische Erfolgsfaktoren erläutert.
Corporate entrepreneurship (CE) supports the strategic renewal of established companies. Corporate venturing represents one key concept of CE that supports companies to strengthen their innovation capabilities. For the successful implementation of corporate ventures dual structures are recommended. The question, how the interface should be designed, plays a crucial role. Although it seems to be an important factor, this aspect requires further attention. One relevant element of the interface design are the different roles of the individuals that are interacting within the interface. This study is based on nine interviews that are representing six internal corporate ventures within one large German corporate from the ICT sector. The results that were mirrored with short case studies of 25 additional companies of the data sample, contribute to a better understanding of the interface design by adding insights about roles in corporate entrepreneurship. This deeper understanding about roles allows to draw conclusions on the interface design from a structural point of view.
Nachhaltiger Unternehmenserfolg erfordert die Umsetzung von Ambidextrie in der Organisation: Das Nebeneinander von effizienter Optimierung im Kerngeschäft und strategischer Innovation und Transformation in neue Geschäftsfelder. „Eingebettete Unternehmerteams“ werden in diesem Kapitel als eine konkrete Form der Implementierung hierzu vorgestellt. Mit kleinen, autonomen und agilen Teams werden iterativ und unternehmerisch neue Geschäftsfelder aufgebaut. Dies verbessert die Innovationsfähigkeiten und Veränderungskompetenzen und unterstützt die notwendige digitale Transformation im Unternehmen. Für solche hybriden Formen der Organisation sind spezielle Rollen und Profile erfolgskritisch: Der angestellte Unternehmer bzw. Corporate Entrepreneur oder Intrapreneur und sein Team. Dieses Kapitel stellt diese Rollen mit den wesentlichen Aufgaben vor und diskutiert detailliert hierfür erfolgskritische Kompetenzen und Charakteristiken sowie das Zusammenspiel im Team. Anhand zahlreicher Praxisbeispiele werden erfolgreiche angestellte Unternehmer beschrieben, sodass für den Leser ein greifbares Bild dieser Rolle und dafür geeigneter Persönlichkeiten entsteht. Darüber hinaus zeigt das Kapitel auf, wie die Einführung und Umsetzung eingebetteter Unternehmerteams das unternehmerische Handeln, Corporate Entrepreneurship in der Organisation und mit alternativen Karrierepfaden auch die Attraktivität als Arbeitsgeber stärkt.
Corporate venturing has gained much attention due
to challenges and changes that occur because of discontinuous
innovations – which seem to be promoted by digitalization. In this
context, open innovation has become a promising tool for
established companies to strengthen their innovation capabilities.
While the external opening of the innovation process has gained
much attention, the internal opening lacks on investigations.
Especially new organizational forms, such as Internal Corporate
Accelerators, have not been investigated sufficiently. This study,
which is based on 13 interviews from two German tech-companies,
contributes to a better understanding of this new form of corporate
venturing and the resulting effects on the organizational renewal.
