We report on a survey of the innovation activities and characteristics of 153 users of outdoor-related consumer products. We find a high level of innovation by these consumers. Thirty-seven percent report that they have developed ideas for new or improved products, and more than 9% report...

In today's environment of rapid technological change companies can not rely on incremental innovations alone. To sustain long-term competitiveness companies need to develop radical innovations as well. Such innovations typically incorporate new and highly complex technologies, create new markets...

Manufacturers usually benefit by dividing their innovation processes into distinct phases in order to ensure that the development activities are performed efficiently in an appropriate sequence. Users usually do not apply such structured processes. They follow a more intuition-driven approach....

Strong market orientation is essential for innovation success! Although both academics and market research practitioners would generally accept this statement, alignment with the needs of the customer often results in conservative innovation strategies. Due to their focus on what is currently on...

In der einschlägigen Literatur wird in der Regel das Bild stark formalisierter und methodengestützter Innovationsprozesse aufgezeichnet, das primär für große Unternehmen zutreffend erscheint. Inwieweit sich diese Vorstellung auch auf Organisationen geringerer Größe übertragen lässt,...

Vor dem Hintergrund der hohen Bedeutung von Kooperationen in der Forschung und Entwicklung (FuE) in der Biotechnologie-Branche analysieren die Autoren mit einer empirischen Untersuchung relevante Einflussfaktoren auf die Effizienz von zwischenbetrieblichen FuE-Projekten. Basierend auf...

In this paper, we report on the results of a large-scale study about typical front-end-related innovation practices in 553 Japanese mechanical and electrical engineering companies. We explore typical activities concerning the generation and assessment of new product ideas, the reduction of...