Encouraging and enabling action research in innovation management

Abstract

Although action research offers great advantages of connecting academia and practice, it is surprisingly underutilised in innovation management. This paper, therefore, focuses on how innovation management research and researchers can more effectively and efficiently apply action research to their domain. The analysis commences with the rationale for aligning action research and innovation management before assessing the strengths and limitations of existing interdisciplinary action research approaches from an innovation management perspective. Combining and enhancing the strengths of these approaches, a new Action Innovation Management Research (AIM-R) framework is developed to assist in resolving the increasing demand for action-orientation in innovation management. AIM-R offers a structured research process for systematically applying action research as a way of encouraging rigorous research processes, while also importantly stimulating relevant practical outcomes. AIM-R specifically considers different change levels (individual, team, organisational) and objects (e.g. outcome, process, capability) critical for the multi-faceted character of innovation management. A real-world example towards the end of the article illustrates how AIM-R has been applied to a complex problem-solution space. This example adds important insights for readers wanting to apply this more engaged, but currently underutilised, innovation management research technique. Starkey et al., 2009;Flyvbjerg and Sampson, 2011;Mårtensson et al., 2016). Therefore, calls for more problemoriented, human centred and interdisciplinary approaches in modern

Human and Planet Centered Approach: Prosperity Thinking in Action

“…Starting from the evolution of marketing design to human-centered design, we illustrate the importance of taking into account the planet's means in the design for Sustainability at the system level. We approached the problem starting from practice, with an Action Research Innovation Management Framework (Guertler, Kriz, and Sick, 2020). Results show that designers, innovators, and changemakers have an interest in a methodology that helps them to analyze and solve systemic challenges linking the micro (human) and macro (planet) through a participatory approach to achieve long-term impact of the designed solutions.…”

O impacto da relação vendas-operação sobre o nível de serviço: pesquisa-ação sobre o transporte de carga aérea

“…O método dessa pesquisa precisou se embasar em pesquisa-ação para esclarecer os problemas, identificar causadores dos problemas, propor ações, praticar ações corretivas, medir resultados, discutir os resultados com partes envolvidas e voltar a propor ações complementares. A pesquisa-ação é um tipo de intervenção que contribui com rigor e relevância a processos multidisciplinares de análises (Guertler et al, 2020). A pesquisa-ação é um termo genérico para qualquer processo que siga um ciclo no qual se aprimora a prática pela oscilação sistemática entre agir no campo da prática e investigar a respeito dela (Tripp, 2005).…”

Innovation management research methods: embracing rigor and diversity

“…Other papers in this Special Issue challenge prevailing understandings, perceptions, and assumptions about when and how to use quantitative research methods (Faems, 2020) or encourage researchers to focus closely on the temporal construction of innovation phenomena (Ellwood and Horner, 2020). Finally, a number of articles discuss how complementary methodologies and approaches can enrich IM scholars’ toolset by highlighting practical relevance and academy‐industry integration, including two articles on action research (Guertler et al, 2020; Ollilla and Yström, 2020) and one on design research in IM (Auernhammer, 2020).…”

“…At the same time, it is important and necessary to ensure the continued evolution of more traditional and existing methods, both in IM and in other disciplines, as many of these have proved over time that they can deliver rigorous and relevant insights. As the articles in this Special Issue acknowledge, qualitative and participatory approaches based on action research (Guertler et al, 2020; Ollila and Yström, 2020) or design research (Auernhammer, 2020) also promise to deliver deeper insights into IM. In so doing, these approaches can enrich the capacity of IM research to address the rigor‐relevance challenge (Worrell, 2009).…”