Innovation Management / User Innovation

This field incorporates two important areas: – The generation of innovations by firms and household sector innovations – The impact of managers on the generation and diffusion of innovations

Generation of Innovations by firms and household sector innovations.

In this field of research we have been dealing with the influencing factors and success effects of the innovativeness of companies for about 10 years. The aim is to identify the levers that companies can use to increase their innovativeness. In addition, we investigate the role played by the respective environment of a company, such as the industry or the market and competitive situation. By innovativeness, we understand not only the frequency or novelty of product or service innovations, but also their significance from the customer's point of view. Therefore, both customer reactions and the financial success of a company are considered as success factors.

The involvement of users in the innovation process of companies promises sustainable added value for all actors involved. Not only can companies better understand consumer needs, they can also gain valuable input for the development and creation of new solutions, which in turn better address the expectations and needs of customers. In this research area we investigate to what extent consumers can be a valuable source of innovation or support the innovation activities of companies. In doing so, we consider both the activities of consumers and those of business customers.

Consumers can pursue innovation activities in different ways. An increasingly important form of innovation is the integration of customers into the innovation process of companies, the so-called co-development. This is where companies develop new offerings together with consumers. Co-development can have different levels of intensity, ranging from sporadic consumers focus groups and crowd sourcing platforms to formally institutionalized innovation teams composed of company employees and consumers.

But consumers can also pursue innovation activities outside of companies. Often, consumers develop products to use them themselves and to satisfy their own needs. The potential economic and social added value of such user innovations often remains untapped. Our aim is to gain a deeper understanding of the opportunities and challenges involved in the development and dissemination of user innovations and to identify suitable framework conditions to better exploit the potential for society and companies.

Sample Research Questions

  • Which types of enterprises can be distinguished in terms of their innovation orientation? Which types of innovation orientation are particularly successful?
  • Through which measures can companies systematically increase their innovative strength? How can corporate culture and structure support the innovativeness of companies?
  • Is it worthwhile for companies to announce new products in advance? Does advance notice pay off, for example in the share price of companies?
  • To what extent do power relations between individual functional areas (e.g. marketing and R&D) promote or hinder the innovativeness of companies?
  • To what extent do customers react differently to newly introduced goods and services? How can firms best respond to customer reactions in order to increase the acceptance of their new introductions?
  • How do different forms of customer involvement affect the innovativeness of products?
  • What opportunities and challenges does the integration of customers in the innovation process entail?
  • How can new product development teams in which customers are involved be optimally composed?
  • How do users who innovate independently of companies differ in terms of their personality and motives from users who innovate together with companies?
  • How can the potential of innovations developed by users be better exploited by companies?

Sample Publications

  • Lukoschek/Carmen, Stock-Homburg, Ruth (2020), Integrating Home and Work: How the Work Environment Enhances Household-Sector Innovations, Research Policy (RP), in print.
  • Stock-Homburg/Ruth, Heald/Shannon, Holthaus/Christian, Gillert/Lennart, von Hippel/Eric (2020), Need-solution pair recognition by household sector individuals: Evidence, and a cognitive mechanism explanation, Research Policy (RP), in print.
  • De Jong, Jeroen/Gillert, Lennart/Stock, Ruth (2018), First Adoption of Consumer Innovations: Exploring Market Failure and Alleviating Factors, Research Policy (RP).
  • Stock, Ruth/von Hippel, Eric/Holthaus, Christian/Gillert, Nils Lennart (2017), Problem Solving Without Problem Formulation: Documenting Need-Solution Pairs in a Laboratory Setting, 15th International Open User and Innovation Conference, Innsbruck, Austria.
  • Zacharias, Nicolas/Stock, Ruth Maria/Im, Subin (2017), Strategic Givens in New Product Development: Understanding Curvilinear Effects on New Product Performance, International Journal of Innovation Management (IJIM), 21, 1-31.
  • Stock, Ruth/Gillert, Lennart (2016), Exploring the Product Innovation Outcomes of Corporate Culture and Executive Leadership, International Journal of Innovation Management (IJIM), 20, 1.
  • Stock, Ruth/von Hippel, Eric/Gillert, Nils Lennart (2016), Impacts of Personality Traits on Consumer Innovation Success, Research Policy (RP), 45, 4, 757-769.
  • Stock, Ruth/Reiferscheid, Ines (2014), Who Should be in Power to Encourage Product Program Innovativeness, R&D or Marketing?, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), 42, 3, 264-276.
  • Stock, Ruth/Holthaus, Christian (2015), User Innovator … And what’s next? Entrepreneurial Clouds as Platforms for Innovating Consumers, 13th International Open and User Innovation Conference, Lissabon, Portugal.
  • Stock, Ruth/Oliveira, Pedro/von Hippel, Eric (2015), Impacts of Hedonic and Utilitarian User Motives on the Innovativeness of User-Developed Solutions, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), 32, 3, 308-478.
  • Stock, Ruth/Totzauer, Florian/Zacharias, Nicolas (2014), A Closer Look at Cross-functional R&D Cooperation for Innovativeness: Innovation-oriented Leadership and Human Resource Practices as Driving Forces, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), 31, 5, 924-938.
  • Gerlach, Jin/Stock, Ruth/Buxmann, Peter (2014), Never Forget Where You’re Coming From: The Role of Existing Products in Adoptions of Substituting Technologies, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), Issue Supplement S1, 31, 133-145.
  • Stock, Ruth/Six, Bjoern/Zacharias, Nicolas (2013), Linking Multiple Layers of Innovation-oriented Corporate Culture, Product Program Innovativeness, and Business Performance: A Contingency Approach, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), 41, 3, 283-299.
  • Stock, Ruth/Zacharias, Nicolas (2011), Patterns and Performance Outcomes of Innovation Orientation, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), 39, 6, 870-888.

Impact of managers on the generation and diffusion of innovations

The realization that companies can ultimately only achieve what their employees are willing and able to do is well known. This also applies to the innovative strength of companies, which depends to a large extent on the individual employees. In this important field of research, we are therefore investigating the importance of people from different hierarchies – i.e. from top managers to employees without leadership responsibility – for the innovativeness of companies. At the management level, we investigate which characteristics of influential leaders promote or hinder the innovation activities of companies. Very striking examples of the significant influence of the entrepreneurial personality on the innovativeness of companies are the corporate leaders Steve Jobs (Apple), Alan Lafley (Procter & Gamble) and Bill Gates (Microsoft). At the employee level, we look at what motivates employees to bring ideas into their company and to share and develop them with employees in other parts of the company.

Sample Research Questions

  • To what extent do managers influence innovativeness and corporate success and to what extent does their influence depend on organizational conditions?
  • What opportunities do managers have compared to employees to contribute innovatively to the company? How can innovative behavior be implemented in the context of leadership? How does the interorganizational nature of marketing teams influence their effectiveness?
  • Which personality traits of managers and employees promote or hinder innovation activities in companies?
  • To what extent can customer contact employees contribute to sustainable customer loyalty through innovative behavior at the customer interface? How can companies design the integration of customers in new product development teams?

Sample Publications

  • Stock, Ruth/Groß, Matthias/Xin, Katherine (2019), Will Self-Love Take a Fall? Effects of Top Executives’ Positive Self-regard on Firm Innovativeness, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM).
  • Stock, Ruth/Zacharias, Nicolas/Schnellbächer, Armin (2016), How Do Strategy and Leadership Styles Jointly Affect Co-Development and Its Innovation Outcomes?, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), 34, 2, 201-222.
  • Stock, Ruth (2015), Is Boreout a Threat to Frontline Employees’ Innovative Work Behavior?, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), 32, 4, 574-592.
  • Stock, Ruth/Totzauer, Florian/Zacharias, Nicolas (2014), A Closer Look at Cross-functional R&D Cooperation for Innovativeness: Innovation-oriented Leadership and Human Resource Practices as Driving Forces, Journal of Product Innovation Management (JPIM), 31, 5, 924-938.
  • Stock, Ruth/Zacharias, Nicolas (2011), Patterns and Performance Outcomes of Innovation Orientation, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science (JAMS), 39, 6, 870-888.

This research area is financially supported by a number of projects: