Management of the Fuzzy Front End of Innovation [Hardcover]

This book shows the patterns of the fuzzy front end of innovation and how it can be managed successfully. Topics in this book cover traditional instruments and processes such as technology monitoring, market-oriented research management, lead-user developments, but also modern approaches such as frontloading, user community-driven innovation, crowdsourcing, anthropological expeditions, technological listening posts in global R&D settings, cross-industry innovation processes, open innovation, and IP cycle management. Contributions are based on latest research and cases studies on this new paradigm. The authors investigate this phenomenon, linking the practice of the early innovation phase to the established body of innovation research. Conceptional articles complement case studies to provide the reader with insight on managing the fuzzy front end of innovation.?Lessons learned with success factors and checklists complement each chapter.

This book shows the patterns of the fuzzy front end of innovation and how it can be successfully managed. It features case studies of selected firms with successful practices in managing the fuzzy front end of innovation.Conceptual Part: Managing the Unmanageable: The Fuzzy Front End of Innovation.- Structuring the Front End of Innovation.- Integrating Customers at the Front End of Innovation.- Out of Bounds: Cross-Industry Innovation Based on Analogies.- Trend Scanning, Scouting and Foresight Techniques.- Crowdsourcing as an Innovation Tool.- Revolutionizing the Business Model.- Managing the Intellectual Property Portfolio.- Applying Cross-Industry Networks in the Early Innovation Phase.- Dancing with Ambiguity: Causality Behavior, Design Thinking, and Triple-Loop-Learning.- Leveraging Creativity.- A Design Perspective on Sustainable Innovation.- Practical Cases: 3M: Beyond the 15% Rule.- ABB: Integrating the Customer.- Bayer: Strategic Management? of the Early Innovation Phase.- BGW: Partnering the Outsideló%