Lernergebnisse
Building on the basic terminology and ideas of innovation management that were introduced in the Bachelor module „Organisation und Innovationsmanagement“, this module expands knowledge on the fundamentals of strategic innovation management. While the significance of innovation for companies is undisputed, the challenge lies in choosing the right innovation strategy, setting up appropriate organizational structures that support innovation, and managing the network of external collaboration partners.
After completing this module students will have a deeper understanding of different innovation strategies and their consequences for managing innovation. Furthermore, they will know how to balance organizational requirements for strategies of exploitation (e.g., the development and commercialization of incremental new products and services that build on existing competences) and exploration (e.g., the development of completely new competencies and new markets through radical innovation), which are both necessary for long-term growth and firm survival. Students will understand the importance of opening the innovation process and fostering collaboration with external stakeholders. They will have knowledge of the necessary skills and activities to manage the overall innovation network of a firm (i.e., network competence), which can comprise suppliers, customers, research institutes, complementary firms or even competitors. They will know how to identify and choose potentially valuable partners such as lead users or user communities and how to successfully integrate these actors in the innovation process.
In the exercise connected to the lecture, students will not only have gained a deeper understanding of the above mentioned topics. By discussing real firm cases, jointly working out possible solutions, and presenting results in a comprehensive way, they will also have developed analytic skills, the competence to work in teams under time pressure, and the capability to convincingly present recommendations as well as argue for their chosen approach.
In the seminar Zukunftsforschung students will discuss trends in the future in topics like technology, social structure, marketing, ... Different methods e.g. prognoses (scenario, Delphi, ...) and scannings (media, online, product, ...) will be used.