Facilitating Radical Innovation in Consumer Electronics and Information Technology Industries
Year: 2014
Type: article
Abstract: Radical innovation (RI) is widely recognized as a source of competitive advantage because it contributes to business sustainability and growth.This applies especially to firms operating in the hyper-competitive environment within consumer electronics (CE) and information technology (IT) industries.A recent Boston Consulting Group survey suggests that radical product innovation is one of three top strategic priorities for 71% of companies.Despite its importance, RI has been widely characterized as lacking order and an outcome of serendipity.Indeed, prior literature has largely ignored antecedents of RI or has studied them in isolation.This dissertation explores the interplay of RI antecedents in the context of CE/IT industries.I conducted an exploratory mixed-methods study on the nature and antecedents of RI in the CE/IT industries.The dissertation consists of three empirical studies.In the first study, I interview 38 product managers and engineers in the CE/IT industries to define the nature of RI and to identify challenges associated with RI.I found that RI emerges from identifying unarticulated market needs and matching them with new technological opportunities.In the second study, I conducted a survey among 408 innovation managers from CE/IT industries to xi identify antecedents of RI and how they interact with incremental innovation (II) and influence product performance.My findings reveal that identifying unarticulated market needs has a significant positive effect on RI and that strategic intent has a significant positive effect on product performance.I also examined which antecedents are most salient in influencing RI, II, and product performance.The third study focused on how firms can facilitate (strategically) the RI process.I suggest a new construct of futureoriented thinking-which identifies a pivotal cognitive future oriented element of RIand use it as a mediator to explain the effects of strategic intent and technology sensing on RI.Findings show that future oriented thinking has a significant (mediating) effect on RI, while strategic intent has a positive effect on both sensing and future oriented thinking.These findings suggest that firms can strategically facilitate RI by creating a strong exploratory "flow" of activities expressed in path: Strategic Intent → Technology Sensing → Future Oriented Thinking → RI.Overall, my study suggests that strategic intent helps address the complexity of RI.It also enriches our understanding of the cognitive processes associated with RI and the negative effects of current market focus on RI.
Author: Shengfa Johnson Chuang
Institution: Case Western Reserve University
Language: English
Subfield: Strategy and Management
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2600891806