Innovation management: Achieving multiple objectives

In order to become more competitive many businesses could improve the effectiveness of their innovation process and as a result of this strategy improve the deployment of scarce resources in an effort to provide greater customer satisfaction. The connection between innovation and the broader strategic issues associated with resources and customer satisfaction intimates that innovation success should not be based solely on the output from the innovation process in the form of new or improved products, processes or services. Strategic innovation is acknowledged as a causal factor in an organisation's development of new business models that establish a clear competitive edge by disrupting existing markets. Further, academic and practical opinion seem to accept that benefits relating to continuous improvement and increased capability through organisational learning are also outputs from the adoption of an innovative stance. Research in the fields of project management and strategic planning have contributed to a prescriptive approach to the management of the innovation process, and yet, it is unclear to many decision makers just how they might prioritise actions to achieve desired goals. In circumstances where multiple goals are being sort managers experience difficulties prioritising their decisions. In order to function in such a complex environment it is assumed that the underpinning given by a sound model is of considerable benefit. Within the body of this paper a model is proposed that has been derived from both the prevailing literature and the analysis of the project data, which it is hoped, will give such benefits. The research reported here is based on a study of 240 businesses in 7 European countries. It explores factors reported in literature as being important for success in innovation and identifies relationships that strengthen an organisation's ability to achieve successful innovative outcomes. It is based on an earlier study by the first author, in which a preliminary survey instrument was used. The development of the instrument is explained along with the analysis of data using principal components analysis, linear regression and canonical correlations. The results help clarify factors related to successful innovation along a number of different dimensions offering the possibility of making strategic decisions on where to concentrate effort. The research illustrates how one might better understand the relationships between Innovation Critical Success Factors (ICSF's) and multiple Innovation Success Criteria (ISC).