Cognition of experts and top managers about the changes in innovation space

Abstract

The innovation space has become more complex and knowledgeintensive. As a result, it is increasingly important to see innovations as knowledge that is embodied in learning and technical and organisational knowledge bases. However, in processes, such as innovation development, individuals make sense of it and utilise existing knowledge differently when making decisions about which design of new technology to adopt and develop. This paper highlights the importance of a certain group's cognition in the recognition of new innovations and business opportunities, and presents a method to explore the cognition of different groups. In this study based on a 2-year research project, two different working groups assessed the future innovation and business opportunities in the field of distributed energy generation. Through analysing the results and by presenting the potential method -the heuristic scenario method -to explore cognition in innovation processes, this paper helps to fill the lack of methodologies in cognition research.Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Bergman, J-P., Jantunen, A., Saksa, J-M. and Hurmelinna-Laukkanen, P. (2007) 'Cognition of experts and top managers about the changes in innovation space', Int.

The Choice of Interactive Control Systems under Different Innovation Management Modes

“…An individual MACS should be more likely to be selected as the ICS under a given IMM if the heuristics and cognitive models framed by the MACS are compatible with and similar to the ones framed by the IMM (Birnberg et al, 2007;Bergman et al, 2007).…”

“…the expert knowledge, skills or experience of individual top managers in subjects related to product/market issues) (Hoffman and Hegarty, 1993) has been suggested as one of the relevant characteristics of individual top managers in explaining their influence on innovation (Thomas et al, 1991;Datta and Guthrie, 1994;Daellenbach et al, 1999;Barker and Mueller, 2002;Smith et al, 2005;Bergman et al, 2007;Hsu et al, 2008). External-oriented expertise influences manager's stock of knowledge and information processing capacity (Smith et al, 2005;Bergman et al, 2007). This stock and capacity make a particular difference in routines and patterns of practice in the strategic IMM, where complexity is higher because attention is focused on the creation of a balanced innovation portfolio throughout the firm.…”

“…First, each IMM describes a different pattern of how heuristic processes are carried out and is associated to a specific cognitive model of innovation (Howells, 1995) by which reality concerning innovation issues is represented and made sense of, similarities between problems or opportunities are recognised and alternative solutions or initiatives are brought about and considered (Teece and Pisano, 1994;Nightingale, 1998;Markman and Gentner, 2001;Bergman et al, 2007). Second, different IMM emphasise different perceptions of the priority needs regarding information contents (Park and Kim, 2005).…”

Managing Ambiguity When Evaluating and Selecting New Ideas in Project Portfolio Management

“…The implication of sensemaking for PPM is that the same idea or project may be interpreted di®erently by di®erent individuals and groups. That is, according to Bergman et al [2007], since sensemaking is in°uenced by individuals' prior knowledge and preferences and their heuristics for acquiring, processing and evaluating information, individuals might make sense of it di®erently when making decisions about which new technology to adopt and develop.…”

“…For example, it has been found that people develop individual and shared frames of reference which allow them to make sense of the environment and guiding strategic behavior [Bessant et al (2011)]. The same idea or project may be interpreted di®erently by di®erent individuals and groups when making decisions about which one to develop [Bergman et al (2007)]; and decision-making rules are not applied strictly, but according to what is understood to be sensible in a speci¯c context [Christiansen and Varnes (2009)]. However, although the process by which we make sense of the world is important in the recognition of new innovations and business opportunities, there is still a need to increase our understanding of sensemaking processes in product development [Bergman et al (2007); Verganti (2011)].…”