Loosely Coupled Systems for Corporate Entrepreneurship : Imagining and Managing the Innovation Project/Host Organization Interface

Abstract

This paper explores the concept of loosely coupled systems as an image representing the interface between innovation projects (emerging organizations) and their host corporations (existing organizations). The model calls attention to ways in which management's actions create more or less independence between innovation and host organization systems. Analyzing interviews from 13 innovation projects in two Fortune 500 corporations, everyday actions that loosen and couple innovation and management systems are identified. Findings offer new ways of conceptualizing and managing this important interface.