A Brave New World: The Impact of Technology on Innovation Management

Abstract

This special issue—focused on the transformative impact of emerging technologies (e.g., artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, service robots, blockchain) on innovation management—identifies the ways that firms are rethinking how they generate ideas, develop products, and engage with stakeholders across organizational and societal levels. The articles in this special issue span multiple domains, including ride-sharing, smart homes, health care, and digital communication. In addition, they demonstrate how new methods are reshaping new product development (NPD) processes. These contributions highlight how emerging technologies enable novel ideation through tools like large language models and topic modeling, as well as how they support agile, data-informed NPD and dynamic commercialization strategies. Leveraging these insights, this editorial proposes a conceptual framework that encompasses a simplified, three-step NPD process (ideation, development, and commercialization), along with key drivers of innovation and their implications for individuals, firms, society, and academia.