Managing innovation with a holistic approach - a single case study on how a holistic view of innovation management can support a company

Abstract

The importance of innovation has been widely recognized and it is argued that company’s survival depends on innovation. In recent research within the field of innovation management there has been a paradigm shift towards a more holistic view of innovation management where all elements of a company should be integrated and be considered as a system. This shift has gained increased interest both on a societal and company level. Hence, it is interesting to investigate how a holistic view of innovation management can support a company in improving their innovation management, thus contributing with implications within this relatively unexplored field of innovation management. This thesis has applied a single case study with a qualitative approach where the empirical findings have been conducted through semi-structured interviews with employees at the case company and the literature review was based on literature on the innovation management field. Furthermore, the empirical findings and the literature review were compared and analyzed by the usage of a thematic analysis method in order to answer the research questions. The findings of the thesis suggests that a company can be supported in many ways when working with innovation management from a holistic and systematic approach for instance, it brings guidance and accessibility in terms of employees' enhanced knowledge of how to proceed with new ideas or the path forward for current projects. Further it gives a broader clarity and focus which may lead to the communication being more straightforward. It is emphasized in both the literature review and in the empirical findings that measuring and evaluating the capabilities, the process, and the innovation results is an essential part of the system. Moreover, one challenge to achieve holistic innovation management is to have a shared definition of what innovation and innovation management means for everyone within the company to set a clear strategy and clear goals. It is concluded that communication from leadership is challenging as well within such a system. The thesis finds that the context of the organization is of importance and the advantages and challenges discussed in the conclusion are to some extent related to the context of a growing company.