Gina Colarelli O'Connor

Opportunity Recognition and Breakthrough Innovation in Large Established Firms

“Every day, I try to go out and grab lightning.” —Terry Fadem, Director, New Business Development, DuPont Corporation

Building a Radical Innovation Competency

OVERVIEW: As growth and profit alternatives continue to erode for many companies, the importance of radical innovation as a mechanism for organization rejuvenation is increasing. Some firms are building entire management systems to enable radical innovation over and over again. They are experimenting with different organizational structures that vary in terms of their relationship with R&D and in terms of how far down the commercialization path they oversee projects. To have a fully developed RI capability, firms find they must manage three sets of activities and ensure that the transitions between them are smooth. These are discovery, incubation, and accelerated growth of new businesses. In addition, firms with different cultures of innovation can all develop RI competencies. This article reports interim results of a three-year longitudinal study of 12 well known, large industrial firms with a declared strategic intent to develop a competency in radical innovation.

Alliance Portfolio Resource Diversity and Firm Innovation

As interfirm collaboration plays an increasingly important role in firm innovation, many firms are engaged in multiple partnerships, forming portfolios of alliances. Research in marketing has predominantly focused on dyadic relationships without considering the important interdependencies among different alliances. This study takes a portfolio approach to examine the resource diversity of multiple alliance partners and its contribution to firm innovation. The authors argue that resource diversity in an alliance portfolio can only benefit innovation when resources and information are shared across alliances. They examine factors that may facilitate or inhibit information and resource sharing across alliances and thus influence the realization of any benefit of portfolio resource diversity. The model identifies various factors along three dimensions, including the composition of an alliance portfolio, alliance management, and the market environment, that moderate the relationship between alliance portfolio resource diversity and firm innovation. This study not only demonstrates the conditions for a firm to benefit from diverse partners but also highlights the importance of coordination among different alliances, suggesting a portfolio approach for alliance research.

Viewing the WEB as a marketplace: the case of small companies

Abstract Companies have rushed to set up presences on the World Wide Web. In most instances, they are advertising their products and services, and in some instances, are actually delivering them over the Internet. Many of these companies are small, and there is at least anecdotal evidence that small companies are at the forefront of commercial use of the Web. In this paper, we consider various perspectives for assessing the role and use of the Web. We argue that most small companies will view the Web as an electronic marketplace. We consider the attraction of the Web as a marketplace for small companies, and the key strategic drivers that are moving small companies to join the Web. We also suggest a number of inhibitors that will make the Web less attractive for small companies in the future. The result is a model that can be used to understand the position of small companies with respect to the Web. Despite the youth of this new medium, some marketing paradigms common to many entrants are emerging. We discuss these paradigms and give examples of their use. We briefly review some successful cases.

Commercializing discontinuous innovations: bridging the gap from discontinuous innovation project to operations

Since 1995, a multidisciplinary team of researchers has deployed case study methodology to follow the progress of 12 discontinuous innovation projects in ten large RD (2) assembling a transition team; (3) establishing an oversight board; (4) developing a transition plan; (5) providing transition funding from corporate sources; (6) laying the groundwork for a big market; and (7) engaging senior management champions.

Assessing Transition Readiness for Radical Innovation

OVERVIEW: Radical innovation is fraught with risk due to the high levels of uncertainty in creating new technologies and new markets. Add to this the challenge of managing in the context of the large corporate enterprise, replete with its bureaucratic processes and necessary focus on continuous improvement, and it is obvious why successful commercialization of radical innovations through large established companies does not happen more regularly. Having an assessment tool to help manage the transition from R&D project team to business-unit product development team can greatly enhance the probabilities of commercial success.

Implementing a Learning Plan to Counter Project Uncertainty

This publication contains reprint articles for which IEEE does not hold copyright. Full text is not available on IEEE Xplore for these articles.

Evaluating Radical Innovation Portfolios

OVERVIEW: Radical innovation in large firms is a risky endeavor, exacerbated by high levels of uncertainty and long cycle times. Moreover, management lacks evaluation tools that are appropriate for the degree of ambiguity of the information available from these types of projects. Add to this the difficulties of managing in the context of the large firm where many processes are tuned toward repetition and continuous improvement, and it becomes clear that commercialization of radical innovation (RI) is a difficult proposition at best. Portfolio managers will almost invariably build a team, learn appropriate processes, clarify their mandate within the company, generate initial projects, and begin to enrich their portfolios, only to have their efforts cancelled out due to an unsatisfactory financial return. The “what have you done for me lately?” question plagues these groups, and ends up costing the company investment of resources in opportunities that are never leveraged. Having an evaluation tool to assess the relative values of projects within the context of the entire radical innovation portfolio, and to track changes in the relative value of the portfolio over time, can help RI portfolio managers articulate their contribution to the companys growth strategy and can aid in innovation strategy development.

Differences in marketing strategies and operating efficiencies in surviving and failed organizations

This study explores differences in marketing strategies and operational tactics that characterize surviving and failing organizations. We examine firms that have existed for at least ten years, so ...

A implementação de inovação radical em empresas maduras

There is increasing evidence of the importance of radical or breakthrough innovation to long-term firm success in the competitive marketplace today. Although this recognition has permeated many established companies, there is uncertainty about how to accomplish such innovation. This article is based on a six-year longitudinal study of 12 radical-innovation projects in 10 large, mature companies. The life cycle of radical-innovation projects is unlike those of incremental projects, because of an abundance of uncertainties and discontinuities. These characteristics require that radical-innovation projects be managed quite differently from incremental ones. Seven key strategic imperatives are offered for successfully implementing radical innovation.