The importance of taking a process perspective on the use and application of an innovation management self-assessment audit

Abstract

Prior research on innovation management self-assessment audits (IMSA) has a strong focus on the assessment situation, primarily on what to assess. However, several additional tasks are necessary to make purposeful use of an IMSA. This study analyzes the undertaking of an IMSA from a process perspective to better understand IMSA’s utilization by looking at how people participate in the process and how the process is integrated in an organizational context. This study adopted an interactive research approach and collected data over a period of 27 months in 45 interviews, six workshops, and 10 meetings with 42 different participants from three companies. Results show a fragmented participation, and that the process was only partly integrated into the organizational context, making it arbitrarily dependent on individual actors. This demonstrates the need to understand challenges related to IMSA use to enable a process that is integrated in the structures intended to be improved.