Management Innovation: A Critical Review

Abstract

Management innovation is one of the most important innovations that help organizations to overcome their performance threshold in the last century (Hamel, 2006). However, the failure rate of management innovation is as high as 70%. This study investigates how management innovation is conceptualized in the literature and proposes a more comprehensive framework for analyzing management innovation. Through an integrative literature review and critical analyses of each approach to management innovation, the paper demonstrates three approaches to management innovation and its philosophical assumptions. Drawing from social constructionism and organisational change theory, it proposes a conceptual model for analyzing and leading management innovation via three mechanisms of social constructionism i.e. externalization, objectification, and internationalization. Each mechanism is described and discussed for research and practical implications.