Broadly described, innovation comes from within an organization – internal – or from sources outside – external. Besides, in terms of its nature and effects, innovating can be targeted or disruptive. Targeted innovation, often also called incremental innovation, means that there is a clear and stated aim of the innovative process, for example, the development of a more energy-efficient washing machine. Disruptive innovation does not have a clear direction; it is a search process based on experimentation and trials.
Certain types of industries may have traditionally tended to one side or the other. For example, gas turbine manufacturers have gradually become more efficient over the last fifty years, while producers of fast-moving consumer goods such as vegan food alternatives, electronic gadgets, or computer games with new versions and Blockchain-based platforms, are exposed to a higher degree of danger of disruption and have to experiment with new products and services. However, even companies in high-reliability infrastructure industries now face the necessity of becoming more disruptive due to digitalization, lower barriers to entry, and climate change.
THE CORPORATE ENTREPRENEURSHIP MATRIX
Based on our research and qualitative interviews with corporate decision-makers and executives working in innovation management in large, medium, and small companies, we have identified the main tools and mechanisms of how executives can organize innovation. Using the two dichotomies described above, we suggest a “Corporate Entrepreneurship Matrix” that helps to categorize and balance innovation efforts along the two dimensions “internal/external” and “targeted/disruptive.” Starting from the top left quadrant, we will present our findings on targeted innovation, and then switch to disruptive innovation.
1 TARGETED AND INTERNAL
The classical stage-gate process is an example of
