Summary of the analysis

Some of the main findings from the analysis are summarized through the operationalized research questions. The answers of the operationalized questions are provided in the section following the operationalized research questions below:

1. How do large firms that produce high technological products organize for product innovation?

a. Why do they do it that way?

b. Do they have independent departments for innovation? One for incremental innovation and one for radical innovation?

c. Does this differ dependent on the size of the business?

2. What kind of product innovation methods, tools or frameworks etc. does high technology firms use to come up with new ideas/ products?

a. Do they have planned workshops, do they appear randomly or do they have special departments for incremental and radical product innovation?

b. What competence is included in the product development phase?

1.) All the companies except company 5 had a R&D department. Company 5 did not have a separate R&D department, they had separated into disciplines, but all of the disciplines worked together. Company 2, 4 and 5 stated that they were following a matrix organizational structure, where company 4 and 5 said they were very project oriented. Company 1 have a R&D

department, and also a new unit that focused on other aspects of innovation than the R&D department such as not being so specialized in one area. Company 4 also claimed that they had a separate department comprising of one person that worked on spinoffs and more radical-like products than their R&D department.

1. a) Informant 1 claimed that their new department was supposed to take on new tasks that the R&D department did not look so much on now, and work as a link between R&D centers in the organization. Informant 2 stated that one of the reasons they were using the matrix organizational structure was because then they could utilize the same resources in several projects. However, he also pointed out that this was sometimes a weakness, because when

some people work in many projects, they do not have the time to fully think about one project before they have to move on to the next. Informant 5 claimed they mostly produced radical innovations, and emphasized that they focused more on having an innovative culture in the organization than how they organized their firm.

1. b) Company 1 and 4 had other units than their normal R&D departments that seemingly worked on innovations with a more width in their focus, and with traits that seemed like they were focusing more on radical innovation. In that way, based on the answers provided by company 1 and 4, they did separate and had one department for radical innovations, and one for incremental innovations. However, the other companies in the study did not seem to organize their business to focus more on radical or incremental innovations.

1. c) Whether or not it is different for large or small firms how they organize for radical or incremental innovations is difficult to say based on the answers gathered in this study. Many of the informants did state that they believed that smaller firms were more likely to be able to do radical innovations because they were more agile and flexible, and that larger firms tended to become too bureaucratic which hindered their innovative capabilities. Some of the informants also stated that smaller firms lacked some potential to be radical innovative because they did not have the same financial backing that they considered necessary.

2.) All of the companies have some sort of methods or processes that they follow for product innovation. Company 1 had a model that they had created themselves, which have many of the same elements as the Design Thinking process. Company 2 were not following any specific model, but typically gathered 2-3 when discussing new areas/ problems to investigate, and then created teams for further investigation into the problem areas. Informant 2 did state that they had tried many different methods for ‘ideation’. Company 3 mainly focused on simulations and visualizing everything they did. Company 4 and 5 were following the systems engineering Vee-model, and company 5 stated that they used A3’s to generate ideas, and visualize their concepts. Company 1, 2, and 5 also stated the importance of having the right people and the right culture when doing product innovation. It was important that the people were motivated, and that they were creative and skilled persons.

2. a) Company 1 focused a lot on having planned sessions with workshops in order to generate ideas, that was also one of the reasons they had created their innovation process document, so it would be easier to facilitate workshops. Informant 5 said that when they were working on new ideas, they were mainly using A3 papers, and collaborating with each other to generate ideas. Company 2 carefully selected people they would bring into idea workshops after they had selected problem area to focus on. Informant 4 did not think that they had any sessions like that, as they mainly worked on developing and improving products, he did however reflect on an experience he had where they previously had tried some sort of innovation process that he believed was a failure.

2. b) Informant 2, 4 and 5 answered that the competence they used in product innovation heavily dependent on what sort of competence was needed for that project. Informant 2 did state the importance of having the experienced people when doing product innovations, as he claimed it was not good if a person was either just technical or just creative, but that they needed both. Informant 1 said that he often preferred to bring people in that had not worked on the same product previously, because they did not have the same barriers, and hence were more innovative because they could think more freely. Informant 1 also talked about that they had typically used people in senior positions that had been in the company for 30+ years, that could typically kill new ideas based on things that was not possible in the past.

On the next page is an illustration of the summarized variables that affect how the investigated firms organize for product innovation, and also the methods they used for product innovation.

Figure 12: Summary of the variables

Product Innovation

Selfmade process

Vee-model

A3's

Culture

Competence

Methods Organizing

R&D department

Separate unit

Matrix Structure

Firm size

Type of innovation

Willingess to cannibalize