Florence Charue-Duboc

Enhancing Discontinuous Innovation through Knowledge Combination: The Case of an Exploratory Unit within an Established Automotive Firm

The literature on innovation management underlines the necessity to separate the exploratory unit that builds new businesses on the basis of radical innovation from the exploitation unit that emphasizes continuous improvement. However, little research focuses on the exploratory unit in itself: the very nature of its activity, its composition, etc. The aim of this article is to analyse the exploratory unit in mobilizing results highlighted by research on organizational creativity. It is argued that in order to enhance discontinuous innovation, knowledge combination should occur and be facilitated in the exploratory unit. Hence, the research question is what organizational design at a fine-grained level and creativity processes are likely to enhance knowledge combination and thus discontinuous innovation? Based on an in-depth study of an exploratory unit created in an established multidivisional firm pursuing the development of discontinuous innovation and which generated several actual breakthroughs, we highlighted four key factors that enhanced knowledge combination: (i) the definition of the scope of the unit, (ii) the composition of the unit and the dual roles of its members, (iii) the boundary objects that supported the interactions between these members during the creativity process, and (iv) the arenas where new knowledge was further created.

Project Management Learning: A Contingent Approach

A convergent stream of research insists on the importance of adopting a contingent approach to project management, due to project characteristics and to specificities of social contexts. This chapter will focus on how such a result can be utilised in designing a project management learning program within a firm.

The Role of Physical Space in Collaborative Workplaces Hosting Entrepreneurs: The Case of the ‘Beehive’ in Paris

In the knowledge economy there are more and more self-employed and nomadic workers due to increasing outsourcing and enhanced telecommunications. These workers enjoy flexibility in work locations because they need no more than a laptop and an internet connection to get their job done. They can work from home or any other place instead of commuting every day to an office. This work arrangement is exemplary of contemporary work-worlds and their new boundaries. Knowledge workers are less and less tied to a specific business location. This growing phenomenon entails a re-examination of the role and benefits of the workspace. The spatial dimension of organizations has long been an understudied dimension in strategic management and organization studies, both at a macrolevel (notions of economic area, territory) and at a microlevel (notions of space management and workspace) (Kornberger & Clegg, 2004; Orlikowski, 2007; Lauriol et al., 2008; Raulet-Croset, 2008). ‘Workspace’ is a research object that has been studied in various academic fields, such as geography, architecture, design, ergonomics, sociology, occupational psychology and semiotics, which is why it is so difficult to apprehend (Price, 2007).

Beyond Advanced Project Management: Renewing Engineering Practices and Organisations

The new approaches to project management currently being deployed in companies radically alter the practices of the participants and the balance of power between them. The literature on this topic has concentrated on analysis of the role of the project manager, internal project management, or even overall management of a project portfolio. What are the consequences of this systematisation of concurrent engineering for the departments involved? How can project-based approaches be developed without undermining professional skills which are also key resources in the race to design innovative products? These issues are of fundamental importance in the transition currently under way. We discuss them in the present chapter through the case of a major French chemical corporation, where we study the reorganisation of engineering departments.

Experimentations in emerging innovation ecosystems: specificities and roles. The case of the hydrogen energy fuel cell

Little research has focused on the way an innovation ecosystem emerges and specifically what processes and tools support it. We argue that as in innovation development processes, experimentation may generate knowledge and reduce the uncertainties associated with this emergence. Based on a longitudinal study of hydrogen energy solutions that require a novel ecosystem, we outline four specificities of the experiments performed, designated as complete solution experiments, and their role in this emergence. They: 1) involve all the players required so as to deliver and operate a complete solution; 2) target real customers using the innovation in real conditions over a significant period of time; 3) are highly refined (components and complements are representative of an industrial offer); 4) are transparent on how the data generated will be exploited and shared with all the players who commit to the experiment, who are thus assured that they will acquire validated information.

Research Role in Denining Customer needs on Innovative Projects

The chemical industry studied here is exemplary, first, of a situation in which the development of new products involves a strong overlap between product innovation and basic research; and second, of detachment from the final customer or (more broadly) from the complexity of the customer-system through which the product will be processed. In this context, research management following a market-pull model and a project-management model insulating the owner from other supplier presents different limitations. Technical imponderables and market uncertainties cannot be dealt with effectively. The gap between the time required for the acquisition of research skills and the pace of change in the marketplace cannot easily be reconciled with sequential planning.