Notre travail de recherche traite des thématiques de l’innovation et de l’ambidextrie dans le management. Notre but est de procéder à une étude comparative des pratiques managériales au sein d’un panel de PME américaines afin d’identifier les déterminants de l’équilibre entre pratiques nouvelles et pratiques ordinaires ou traditionnelles. Notre recherche présente deux intérêts particuliers. D’une part, elle se centre sur le cas des entreprises américaines compte tenu de leurs spécificités en matière d’innovation et de conduite du changement, ce qui permet d’enrichir les connaissances sur certaines formes de management aux États-Unis. D’autre part, nous mobiliserons et croiserons un certain nombre de travaux traitant à la fois du management de l’innovation de manière générale et des facteurs qualitatifs dans les conceptions et pratiques de l’ambidextrie de manière particulière, notamment en lien avec les styles de « leadership ».En ce qui concerne les choix méthodologiques, nous nous sommes orientées vers une démarche abductive, avec des allers-retours entre littérature et terrain. En effet, notre recherche se base sur une approche qualitative avec des études de cas (Yin, Glaser et Strauss, Eisenhardt…), tandis que nos questionnements et notre problématique ont été amenés à s’affiner en fonction des résultats obtenus.Ce travail de recherche nous permet de mieux comprendre le fonctionnement et le management des entreprises américaines, en particulier lorsqu’elles sont familiales, et de mettre en lumière les spécificités de leurs méthodes en matière de management de l’innovation et l’ambidextrie. Il aide à relativiser le concept d’innovation pour montrer les apports potentiels de certaines approches dosées, visant à la fois l’exploitation de l’existant et l’exploration de voies nouvelles. En outre, nos résultats permettent de dégager des recommandations managériales pour les entreprises américaines, mais également pour d’autres organisations ou managers en relation avec le contexte des États-Unis. / Our research work deals with the subjects of innovation and ambidexterity in the management. Our goal is to conduct a comparative study of managerial practices with several U.S. SMEs in order to identify the determinants of the balance between new and common or traditional practices. Throughout the research period we keep following our two main purposes. On the one hand, our research work focuses on the case of U.S. companies specifically proactive with regard to innovation and change management. This allows us to widen our knowledge concerning certain forms of management in the United States. On the other hand, we will draw on large number of studies dealing with both innovation management in general and particularly qualitative factors in the in the conceptions and practices of ambidexterity, especially in relation to “leadership” styles.Concerning the methodological choices, we keep up with abductive approach, because there is back and forth between literature and research field. Indeed, our research is based on a qualitative approach with case studies (Yin, Glaser et Strauss, Eisenhardt...), while our research question and problem have been refined according to the obtained results.This research work helps us to better understand business operation and management of U.S. companies, especially when they are family-owned and to highlight the specificities of their methods in terms of innovation management and ambidexterity. It helps to put the concept of innovation in perspective to show the potential contributions of certain measured approaches, aiming both the exploitation of existing and the exploration of new ways. In addition, our results provide managerial recommendations for U.S. companies, but also for other organizations or managers related to the U.S. context.

As new markets continuously emerge, increasing academic attention has been devoted to identifying what factors predominantly foster this process. Notably, scholars have coupled market creation with value-creating innovations; new markets emerge due to generation of novel customer value. Blue Ocean Strategy is a prominent approach to such market creation incentives, centring around the implementation of value innovation. However, exploration of this approach has been relatively overlooked in previous research. Extant literature has, instead, primarily acknowledged marketing incentives as the major facilitating factor of new markets, referring to how solutions need to be aptly communicated to gain stakeholders. In addition, technology development is considered by scholars to have a great impact on the creation of new markets, on accounts of breakthrough inventions having disrupted and dismantled preceding industries. The purpose of this study is thus to fill the apparent research gap by investigating how value innovation enables entrepreneurs to create new markets. Although startups are pertinent to the notion of innovative solutions that lead to new markets, entrepreneurs’ approach to market creation has not been extensively investigated. Hence, becoming an applicable context for the research purpose. In order to collect empirical data, a qualitative research approach was undertaken, where seven interviews were conducted with respondents from different Swedish startup companies. Participating companies originate from a variety of industries and shared experiences from their respective innovation processes, which subsequently facilitated insightful data, applicable to the purpose. Findings revealed that value innovation enables entrepreneurs to create new markets as its implementation removes the challenge of competing with incumbents, allowing the startup to go beyond the boundaries of the traditional industry. Ultimately, the collected data could not support the notion of value innovation as an exclusive approach to market creation. Nevertheless, the role of value innovation as a significant factor in the process cannot be entirely undermined as findings indicated that its implementation prominently alleviates market creation.

Cette thèse porte sur l'étude de la méthode Design thinking dans le contexte particulier des stratégies d'entreprises pro-pauvres, et plus particulièrement dans le contexte de développement de business models inclusifs à la base de la pyramide des marchés émergents. Dans ce contexte, et comme pour tout nouveau marché, les entreprises multinationales sont de plus en plus conscientes qu'elles devront apprendre de nouvelles façons radicales de travailler pour réussir. Dans le cadre du business inclusif, les entreprises doivent développer une nouvelle philosophie, de nouveaux processus, de nouvelles capacités, de nouveaux partenariats et une collaboration approfondie avec différentes parties prenantes. Nous proposons que la méthode Design thinking appliquée au contexte de la base de la pyramide peut en effet favoriser le développement des capacités de création de nouveaux business models innovants et inclusifs et la création de valeur partagée. Une tentative de validation de cette méthode dans le contexte de la base de la pyramide, est faite à travers deux cas d'entreprises multinationales : GE-Healthcare et Schneider Electric, qui fournissent des solutions uniques aux défis auxquelles sont confrontées les populations de la base de la pyramide dans différents secteurs comme la santé ou l'énergie. En mettant l'accent sur certains des principes fondamentaux du Design thinking comme la centralité sur l'humain, la co-création et l'expérimentation ou encore la collaboration, l'étude essaye de valider un ensemble de processus et de capacités sur lesquelles se base la création de nouveaux business models inclusifs et le développement de solutions innovantes entièrement contextualisées face à des problèmes réels. / This thesis deals with the study of Design thinking in the particular context of pro-poor business strategies, and more particularly in the context of the development of inclusive business models at the base of the pyramid of emerging markets. In this context, and as in any new market, multinational companies are increasingly aware that they will have to learn new, radical ways to work for success. Within the framework of inclusive business, companies must develop a new philosophy, new processes, new capabilities, new partnerships and in-depth collaboration with different stakeholders. We propose that the Design thinking method applied to the context of the base of the pyramid can indeed encourage the development of the capabilities of creation of new innovative and inclusive business models and the creation of shared value. An attempt to validate this method in the context of the pyramid was made in two cases of multinational companies: GE-Healthcare and Schneider Electric, which provide unique solutions to the challenges faced by The pyramid in different sectors such as healthcare or energy. By focusing on some of the fundamental principles of design thinking such as human centeredness, co-creation and experimentation, and collaboration, the study tries to validate a set of processes and capabilities that enables the creation of new inclusive business models and the development of fully contextualized innovative solutions to real problems.

Purpose Idea Management as key activity in the front-end of innovation is crucial for not only targeting new products but also for new technologies. Nevertheless, the interrelations between Idea Management and Technology Development are still not fully understood. Due to the different abstraction levels of products and technologies, an in-depth investigation of evaluation criteria for Technology Development ideas is required. Therefore, the purpose of this thesis is to examine which evaluation criteria are pertinent for each phase of Idea Management, when applied for Technology Development. Design The research framework for Idea Management criteria in the context of Technology Development is built on data from 17 semi-structured interviews, two focus group interviews as well as participant observations. The participants of this study are experienced R&D experts from a large Swedish organization in the transport industry. Findings The results indicate that the evaluation of Technology Development ideas is more complex due to the high degree of uncertainty and unpredictability. In contrast to the common one-step evaluation process of New Product Development ideas, the findings suggest a three-step evaluation process for Technology Development ideas. Due to the lack of knowledge and maturity when an idea is generated, this three-step evaluation enables a continuous reduction of uncertainty. In addition to this, the result of this study contributes with the suggestion to attribute a focus dimension for each Idea Management phase, which in consequence is helping firms to direct their evaluation resources. The findings are presented in a generic evaluation framework that leads organizations through the assessment process. Theoretical contribution The present study contributes to the literature with an improved understanding of TD idea evaluations by suggesting a rather internally use-oriented perspective as well as advances prior research through knowledge about the right timing for the use of evaluation criteria. Practical implications Irrespectively of the origin or focus of an idea, evaluation criteria are helping to direct Technology Development initiatives. By having evaluation criteria, defined as pertinent for each phase of Idea Management, Technology Development ideas can be assessed appropriately regarding their contextual circumstances. Originality The study is among the first that differentiates Idea Management for Technology Development from the one targeting New Product Development. This study suggests a framework that considers the stages and criteria necessary in the context of TechnologyDevelopment.

In a seemingly ever faster moving world where global competition is rising, companies has to find their competitive advantage. This advantage could be by offering a lower price on similar products or for instance by offering a superior product. What makes a product superior in comparison with the competitor’s products and how can the company maintain its competitive advantage. One of the main solutions for this dilemma is to be more innovative than the competitors and thereby gaining the competitive advantage. Becoming innovative doesn’t mean relying on sheer luck; instead the company has to adapt the proper innovation management. This thesis aims to research and suggest how a conceptual innovation management framework could be modelled for a large technology heavy organization. The findings of applicable theories together with the empirical study clearly show that in order for a large technology heavy company to improve its innovativeness it has to act under an innovation management framework, where innovation strategy and designated roles are clearly stated.

Services and innovation are the drivers of today’s economy, yet, there is a lack on academic literature on what matter the interactions between these two forces. On that sense, Barras, in 1986, established one of the most representative models regarding innovation within service firms. The “Reverse Product Cycle” (RPC) argue that service firms, trigged by IT advancements, would follow an opposite innovation evolution if compared to the classic manufactured view of novelty progress. Besides representing an important breakthrough on the services differentiation from the predominant industry view, it was replete of problematic that are now reinforced by the present high dynamic environment. On that present scenario, the role knowledge-intensive business services (KIBS) play is of crucial importance to innovation dissemination within a diversity of industries. It features are intrinsically related to tailored co-produced solutions to specific clients requirements that, by the case study of an ongoing KIBS shared solution development, seems to bring back the innovation pattern defended by the RPC model. The present study aims to analyze this hypothesis and revisit the RPC model through the optics of current KIBS innovation process.

The health sector is today facing many challenges, requiring a need for capabilities in managing innovations. At Karolinska University Hospital in Sweden, the management of some of the innovations has been centralized to the Innovation Center. The Innovation Center can be involved in all phases of an innovation process, but have identified difficulties to deal with innovations that have already been successfully implemented. Further implementation of these innovations to other hospital units, creates benefits for more patients and care givers, and is therefore of high importance. Therefore, managing innovations also includes making sure that successfully implemented innovations are spread to other clinics in the hospital, a phenomenon hereby called dissemination of innovations. Studies show that many innovations, even though they are successfully implemented at one location, disseminate slowly, or not at all. In fact, two out of three implementation efforts in the health care sector fail due to various barriers. The purpose of this master thesis is therefore to explore how dissemination of innovations can be facilitated at university hospitals in public health care systems. By dissemination we refer to the intentional spreading of innovations to other hospital units, or repeated implementations following the initial implementation target. Therefore, dissemination is targeted by studying the dynamics of implementation processes through the following research question: How do organizational factors affect the implementation of innovations at public university hospitals? By organizational factors we mean general areas that can be influenced by central management functions, such as: funding, leadership and culture.   The research question has been studied qualitatively through a literature study, a contextual study and three case studies. The cases consist of three innovation projects managed by the Innovation Center that have undergone some sort of dissemination. The empirical data has been collected through semi-structured interviews with both administrative and clinical staff. The data has been structured and analyzed using a theoretical framework developed from findings in previous research. In accordance to previous research, our results indicate that various organizational factors affect the dissemination of innovations. For instance, the complex and unstandardized way of getting funding to dissemination projects are impeding the process. Also, it needs to be clearly established who is to assume responsibility of an innovation, both during its initial implementation process as well as its dissemination. Resistance from clinicians may also function as a barrier and is caused by, for instance, a lack of information about the innovation or bad experiences from earlier failed projects. Additionally, if innovations do not meet identified and prioritized needs at the clinic, or if it is not properly adapted to local conditions and requirements, this may also impede the implementation. To properly involve clinicians is therefore of high significance in order to enable a successful implementation. Finally, rigid structures affect implementation negatively. These are built up by, for instance: extensive use of, and sometimes contradicting, policies and regulations; high administrative requirements as well as an organizational structure that separates medical disciplines. This inertia, together with sparse time allocated for innovation activities among the clinics, leads to difficulties when implementing and disseminating innovations in the hospital.

Recent literature on the relationship between instructional designers (IDs) and subject matter experts (SMEs) reveals how much more is known about the challenges faced by IDs and more solutions are offered in their respective role compared to their SME partners. This study uses interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) to investigate the ID-SME collaborative relationship from the perspective of and the utility for the SME role within the field of Technology and Innovation Management (TIM). Six SMEs within the field of TIM were interviewed to discover more on the nature of their working relationship, specifically in regard to (a) their conceptual understanding of roles and expectations, (b) the nature of the working conditions, and (c) the characteristics that present advantages and/or challenges. Results provide qualitative insights situated within the TIM field, partnership, and projects. SMEs convey expectations of openness for themselves and expectations of clarity in communications and processes for IDs; SMEs acknowledge advantages of expertise from both roles; SMEs admit their own limitations of being myopic, seclusive, overly complex, and uneducated in matters of instruction; SMEs express challenges of additional workload and deadlines; and SMEs share resources relied on or would have relied on to improve their collaborative relationship with IDs. The findings of this study suggest the value of considering the SME perspective in their unique role within the ID-SME relationship. Key implications for this study suggest overcoming barriers and providing support to the SME role in practical application.

Swedish firms have become increasingly accountable for their impacts on the economy, society, and environment. Since the year 2016, Corporate Sustainability has emerged as a relatively new phenomenon forcing SMEs that meet certain criteria to report annual sustainability metrics. However,sustainability reporting has not yet become standardized. Previous literature acknowledges the importance of sustainability orientation for the firm and the managers’ role in developing a general understanding of how sustainabilitypractices add value to the firm. Moreover, the particular organizationalpractice of sustainability reporting is still immature and have scarcely been attended by contemporary literature.  This study aims to develop an understanding of how sustainability reporting practices look like in the firm, and whether sustainability reporting practiceshas affected today’s innovation management. To answer the research questions, a mixed research method were chosen with an inductive approach.Three kinds of data was collected and analyzed – sustainability reports, survey, and firm-level interviews – in a step-wise manner to explore the complexities of sustainability reporting practices and its’ impact on firms’ innovation management.  In this study, we found that there are complexities in establishing clear routines in the sustainability reporting practices due to the multiple internal and external actors involvement, and because of knowledge gaps within the firm. In addition, sustainability reporting practices positively impactinnovation management through the building of general awareness, or even culture towards sustainability. In turn, this has boosted the firms’ creativity in sustainable innovations. Moreover, sustainability reporting practices impact New Product Development in particular, through stakeholder engagement in reporting the contents included in the sustainability reports.  This study contributes to an updated understanding of Sustainability Reporting practices in general and its’ role in Innovation Management in particular. The adoption of sustainability reporting transfer activities that are intertwined and embedded with organizational- and managerial perspectives when pursuing alignment of Corporate Sustainability in an already complex system. Therefore, we conclude that sustainability reporting is vital indeveloping stakeholder engagement for firms aiming at incorporating sustainability practices. Moreover, this subsequently influences the outcomes in New Product Development.

Several researchers talk about how the greatest source of competitive advantage is a firm's capability to be innovative, and it is a fact that economic growth is built upon innovations and ideas. Ideas belong to the early activities of innovation processes, which can be defined as he front end of innovation (FEI). FEI has clearly been stated to be crucial for the innovative performance of firms, but yet an area which many companies often lack of handling in a structured way. What need to be considered for a successful FEI has laid the foundation of this thesis. The aim with the thesis is to investigate what are key success factors and common pitfalls for processes and activities within the FEI, and how these can be handled by management. The thesis is also investigating how ideas and innovations can be measured in order to take the right decisions for different types of ideas by a suitable level of decision-makers. The thesis was carried out as a case study at Construction Tools division at Atlas Copco who had expressed the same demand as many companies appear to struggle with: a structured FEI. The goal with the thesis is therefore to propose recommendations towards a successful FEI, including structures, methods, and tools for the case company. In order to do so, twelve semistructured qualitative interviews with internal employees followed by ten semi-structured qualitative interviews with external companies in different industries and sizes were conducted. Along with the case study, a literature study was also performed. The collected data were analyzed and benchmarked towards the literature and the research questions, which resulted in several conclusions which are both general as well as organizational specific for the case company. These are amongst others: a structured innovation portfolio management including clear budget allocation and innovation strategy; enabling a creative culture; separating staff for conducting work regarding disruptive ideas; involvement by top management in the development of ideas. / Flertalet forskare pekar på att bland det viktigaste för ett företag att vara konkurrenskraftig handlar om deras förmåga att vara innovativa. Idéer hör till de tidigaste aktiviteterna i innovationsprocessen, vilket kan definieras som förutveckling som har visat sig vara tydligt avgörande för företagens innovativa prestanda. Vilka faktorer som företag måste överväga för en framgångsrik förutveckling har lagt grunden för detta arbete. Syftet med projektet är att undersöka vilka framgångsfaktorer och vanliga fallgropar som förekommer i det tidigaste skedet i produktutvecklingen och dess tillhörande aktiviteter, samt hur dessa kan hanteras och påverkas av chefer. Projektet undersöker också hur idéer och innovationer kan mätas för att beslutsfattare ska kunna fatta rätt beslut kring olika typer av idéer. Projektet genomfördes som en fördjupad fallstudie hos Construction Tools divisionen på Atlas Copco som uttryckt samma problem som identifierats hos andra företag: bristen av en strukturerad förutvecklingsprocess. Målet med projektet är därför att föreslå rekommendationer till en framgångsrik förutveckling som inkluderar strukturer, metoder och verktyg för uppdragsgivarna. För att möjliggöra detta genomfördes tolv halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med interna medarbetare på uppdragsföretaget, följt av tio halvstrukturerade kvalitativa intervjuer med externa företag i olika branscher och av olika storlek. Kombinerat med fallstudien genomfördes också en litteraturstudie. Den insamlade datan från intervjuerna analyserades och jämfördes mot litteraturen och forskningsfrågorna, vilket resulterade i flertalet slutsatser som både är generella samt organisatoriskt specifika för uppdragsgivarna. Dessa innefattar bland annat vikten av en strukturerad innovation- och produktportfölj, innehållande en tydlig budgetallokering och innovationsstrategi; möjliggörandet av en kreativ kultur; att separera personer för att enbart arbeta med disruptiva och radikala idéer; aktivt deltagande av ledande befattningshavare vid idéutveckling.