Abstract
The analysis aimed at revealing the specific location in the innovation process where innovation typically fails shows that significant parts of reality were likely not considered by those who presented the conventional funnel model of the innovation process. We refer to the most important missing component as the innovation gap .
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Notes
- 1.
This seems quite plausible because it is the course of least resistance. For various reasons, it takes courage to officially terminate a project. One prefers on the one hand to avoid demotivating employees. On the other hand, the gradual suffocation of projects may also be a sign of a basic uncertainty or a lack of understanding. One simply does not know how to approach uncomfortable and incalculable projects.
- 2.
The market introduction phase is characterized by an implicit compulsion to keep going forward, so as to justify and protect substantial investments. One prefers to give it a run and let the market decide. Market failure is easier to accept for the project team and easier to communicate to the executive board.
- 3.
While there are key data that can be used to measure innovative capacity, these tend to be rather indirect (e.g. sales of products that have been on the market for less than 2 years) and their significance is therefore limited. This is why the identification of key data for innovation has remained a subject of research in its own right.
- 4.
TIME = telecommunications, IT, media and entertainment.
- 5.
Swisscom Innovations (previously known as Swisscom Research and Development).
- 6.
- 7.
We selected an English term because English was the company language. Moreover, a few authors have detected and referred to similar problem in this area. Walter Hehl, for instance, refers to a difficult phase in the same area in German as the “Innovationslücke” (in Hehl and Willmanns 2009, p. 16) and Thomas Hinderling from CSEM speaks of the valley of death in connection with startups (Hinderling 2013).
- 8.
The role of the account manager is a typical role in virtually all sales departments (see Capon 2001).
- 9.
See also http://www.myersbriggs.org, as referenced on May 30, 2014.
- 10.
See http://www.keirsey.com/handler.aspx?s=keirsey&f=fourtemps&tab=3&c=overview, (as referenced on April 6, 2010).
- 11.
See http://www.keirsey.com/handler.aspx?s=keirsey&f=fourtemps&tab=3&c=overview (as referenced on April 6, 2010) and http://www.keirsey.com/4temps/overview_temperaments.asp (as referenced on April 16, 2014). The older description used here from Keirsey.com from the year 2010 (http://www.keirsey.com/handler.aspx?s=keirsey&f=fourtemps&tab=3&c=overview) appears to us to be clearer and therefore more appropriate for our present purposes.
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Huber, D., Kaufmann, H., Steinmann, M. (2017). The Missing Link: The Innovation Gap. In: Bridging the Innovation Gap. Management for Professionals. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55498-3_3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-55498-3_3
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