Managing innovation in non–R&D–intensive firms

Abstract

Innovations with little R&D, or without it, do not necessarily represent isolated cases; they just are different! Companies can compete innovatively on a global scale without incurring (high) R&D costs. Because the innovation processes of non–R&D–intensive companies are less formalised and more heavily customer driven, current solutions for innovation strategies based on R&D activities are not suitable. Thus, this chapter presents two case studies that focus on increasing innovativeness and competitive advantage by utilising two approaches: The organisation of internal innovation processes and the assessment of innovation cooperation. The aim of the selected case studies is to illustrate both approaches to processing the problems and issues identified in these companies as well as the individually generated solutions and organisational measures. Each case study is introduced more generally from a conceptual perspective and concludes with a reflection summarising the significant findings compiled during the course of the joint work phases. In particular, the conceptual perspective can provide guidance for the application of these approaches in different industrial contexts and can thus be adopted by other companies in the same form and sequence.