The Impact of Digitization on Contemporary Innovation Management

Innovation management is challenged by the new circumstances created through the pervasive digitization of entire industries and society at large. Since digital technology is an important part of most novel services and products, innovation management is searching for ways to align traditional innovation processes and routines with the new requirements. To better understand how digitization challenges the established assumptions of traditional innovation management, we conducted a total of 27 interviews with senior managers from 11 companies in various industries. Our results empirically confirm and underscore conceptual insights from extant research. We find that the pervasive digitization leads to (1) blurring external boundaries, (2) fusion of process and outcome, and (3) shortened innovation cycles. Most importantly, we uncover first insights into how senior managers react to the ubiquitous challenges of digitization.