Exploring the digital innovation process: The role of functionality for the adoption of innovation management software by innovation managers
European Journal of Innovation Management
ISSN: 1460-1060
Article publication date: 14 September 2018
Issue publication date: 19 February 2019
Abstract
Purpose
Previous research has highlighted the digitization of innovation processes and outcomes especially with regard to the impact of information technology (IT) on new product development (NPD). Instead of analyzing generic IT usage in the NPD, the purpose of this paper is to explore the influencing factors on the adoption of specific software tools to support innovation management methods, called innovation management software (IMS) and their specific functionality.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors used an online questionnaire and gathered data from 99 innovation managers of German industrial firms to explore which functionalities embedded in the tools such as aided innovation methods and activities influence the adoption of IMS.
Findings
This study’s results indicate in contrast to the previous assumptions in the literature that the likelihood of IMS adoption by innovation managers is positively influenced if the IMS tools offer support functionality for idea evaluation and portfolio management but decreased for idea generation and scenario management. Therefore, this paper can show, that the digitalization of the innovation process though IT tools is more finely nuanced than a “the more – the better” logic often promoted in the digitalization context and proposed in the literature on IMS before.
Originality/value
These findings advance the understanding of technological and organizational drivers of the transformation toward the digitalization of the innovation process from the perspective of innovation managers, who intend to do so by successfully introducing and using IMS in their NPD. Additionally, suppliers of IMS get valuable empirical-based indications from the user perspective that potentially supports their development and sales activities. From a theoretical perspective, this study extends prior research on IT usage and digitalization in the innovation process by expanding to an under-researched category of digitization for the innovation manager perspective aspects of the NPD activities.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to Isa Heim for her help in collecting survey data for this study.
Citation
Huesig, S. and Endres, H. (2019), "Exploring the digital innovation process: The role of functionality for the adoption of innovation management software by innovation managers", European Journal of Innovation Management, Vol. 22 No. 2, pp. 302-314. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-02-2018-0051
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2018, Emerald Publishing Limited