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Innovation Strategy (IFLV6588)
Department
- International Program
Course unit code
- IFLV6588
Level of course unit
- Bachelor
Year of study
- Spring 2025
Semester when the course unit is delivered
- 1
Number of ECTS credits allocated
- 3.0
Name of lecturer(s)
- FH-Prof. Dr. Bogodistov Yevgen
Learning outcomes of the course unit
- Innovation management at the intersection of Innovation, Digital Technology, and Strategy has to deal with very diverse challenges: e.g., how to unleash creativity in the organization, how to set up an innovation-oriented organisation, how to tap into customer’s innovation potential, how to identify the potential value of new digital technologies, how to select the right ideas, how to manage innovation projects and teams, and how to bring innovation successfully to the market and capture the resulting monetary value, and many others.
The module sets out to discuss the key challenges that come along with innovation and its strategic implementation. In this course, we try to link environmental challenges with a company’s innovation approach.
Mode of delivery
- face-to-face
Recommended optional program components
- none
Course contents
- In this course, we try to work on three different levels. First, we start with the creativity and how to produce a new idea. Idea creation happens on the individual level. Second, we need to build a bridge from an idea to an innovation which happens on the organisation level. Each organisation needs to see potential in an idea, select few ideas of many, and bring them to the market. Third, we need to think about the market level – how will competitors react on your innovation, how can you protect your idea, how can you position your idea in order to make it sustainable with regard to long-term profits. At the same level, we have to think about the perception of your idea. Perception of innovation is a cultural matter – not every idea fits the market and the consumers’ expectations.
During our classes, we work on all three levels in order to equip you with knowledge and skills necessary to make you and your organisation profitable.
Knowledge:
On successful completion of this module, students will bel able to:
• Distinguish core concepts of innovation and their different forms from incremental to radical
• Identify the particularities of digital technologies and how those affect the way innovation management happens
• Judge the different components of the innovation strategy and its impact on sustained firm’s success
• Understand innovation management within a firm
• Estimate cultural aspects of innovation
Competence:
After successfully completing this module, students will be able to:
• Ideate and build bridge from an idea to an innovation
• Strategically position their innovation
• Evaluate strategic options for solving challenges associated with innovation
During this class, we work on several innovation-related topics. In order to make the structure as interesting as possible, we will have not large topic blocks, but small slots. Each slot is dedicated to a topic or an exercise on the topic.
We talk about:
1. Creativity. Can you learn to be creative?
2. Innovation. What do we call innovation?
3. Invention. Is every invention an innovation?
4. Innovation strategy. Can we achieve long-term results with our innovation?
5. Innovation capability? Can we develop one or are we "born" with it?
6. (Sustained) Competitive advantage? How long does your idea last?
7. First mover advantage. To lead or to follow?
and many others.
Moreover, in our simulation game you will learn something interesting about the interactive nature of innovation strategy.
Recommended or required reading
- Grant, Robert M., and Judith Jordan. 2015. Foundations of Strategy. 2nd ed. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley
Cohen, Wesley M., and Daniel A. Levinthal. 1990. "Absorptive Capacity: A New Perspective on Learning and Innovation." Administrative Science Quarterly 35 (1): 128-52
David, P. A. (1985). Clio and the Economics of QWERTY. The American economic review, 75(2), 332-337.
Fiske, Alan Page. 1992. "The Four Elementary Forms of Sociality: Framework for a Unified Theory of Social Relations." Psychological Review 99 (4): 689-723Pearce, J. & Robinson, R. (2010). Strategic Management - Formulation, Interpretation, and Control.
Schilling, M. (2016). Strategic Management of Technological Innovation. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Shuradze, Giorgi, Yevgen Bogodistov, and Heinz-Theo Wagner. 2018. "The Role of Marketing-Enabled Data Analytics Capability and Organizational Agility for Innovation: Empirical Evidence from German Firms." International Journal of Innovation and Technology Management 22 (4): 1850037
Planned learning activities and teaching methods
- In this course, we will have a series of lectures with discussion. We also run an innovation strategy simulation. Group work is performed both during lectures and as a part of the simulation.
Language of instruction
- English
Work placement(s)
- none