Unit 8: Innovation and Commercialisation in Sainsbury's & M&S

This report delves into the concepts of innovation and commercialisation within the context of retail organisations, focusing on Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer as case studies. It examines how these companies source and foster innovation, highlighting strategies such as new product lines, online platforms, and customer-centric approaches. The report further discusses different types of innovation, including incremental, disruptive, and radical innovation, illustrating how these are processed within an organisation using examples like Sainsbury's recycling system, Netflix's streaming service, and Apple's iPhone. The importance of an adaptable organisational environment and a strong online presence for driving innovation and maintaining competitiveness in the retail market is emphasized. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments for students.

Unit 8 Innovation and
Commercialisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART- 1...........................................................................................................................................3
1. Sourcing and fostering of innovation in organizations;...........................................................3
2. Different types of innovation and how's they are processed within organization...................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a process of making an idea or inventions into as good or services which
help to create value for customer will pay There are different type of innovation are proposed by
company such incremental innovation, open innovation etc. The main idea of innovation is to
create value to makes changes in existing product or services by creating entirely product or
services which help to reduce cost (Expósito and Sanchis-Llopis, 2019). In addition to this
commercialization is the process of transforming the idea, inventions and knowledge into greater
wealth for business, individuals or society at large. Also, commercialization is the subset of
broader process of innovation.
Present report will discuss different organization source and fosters innovation with the
help of relevant examples of Sainsbury and Mark & Spencer. Then there are different types of
innovation will explain and how they processed in organisation.
PART- 1
1. Sourcing and fostering of innovation in organizations;
Many retailers have started focusing on the innovative practices rather than the old
conventional marketing methods. Organizations are trying to speed up the innovation process in
order to gain the market share. Sainsbury's and Marks & Spenser have taken many innovative
actions to improve the business of the company.
Sainsbury's has increased the speed of innovations and is planning to introduce cost-
cutting and lowering the product price as the part of its commitment to enhance the value for
customer base online. The innovation has been sourced by the company from many of the market
opportunities it identified over the years (Ahmed and et.al., 2022). The company has launched
277 new product lines and is on a track to meet the product innovation compared with the
previous year and also it is going to launch these products for online customers as well. Adding
such product lines is an action taken by the company to support the supermarket's dream to put
the food at the core of the business.
Organisation supports the creation of culture and structure within the organisation which
enhances the innovation and productivity in the business. As business thrives on the edge of
innovation, it has been very evident that Sainsbury has a clear vision of making business vision
clear to employees in the organisation at all the levels. The vision of Sainsbury is to develop the
value for money brand image via selling products. Leadership style of the company depicts the

way they are going to the direction of growth in terms of innovation. As company is making the
Constant efforts to keep the employees' motivation high which can bring the best productivity in
the employees hence bringing innovation. Innovation vision of the company is towards the
customer satisfaction and quality service and products. Company understands the online
presence of the business and has built a strong market base online by taking technological driven
approaches to understand and adapt the market. The recent initiative launch of helping all eat
better shows the commitment to provide customers great value for money. When it comes to the
health and taste, Sainsbury is trying to achieve the customer satisfaction, given the fact that 30%
of super market consumers are women, Sainsbury is developing innovative products for women
(Albors-Garrigos, 2020). The fostering of the innovation has been led by the company culture
that supports the innovation, ideas, newness and change in the analysis of the business.
Sainsbury's innovation strategy majorly lies in its product innovation and launch
innovation as it launches majority of its products online. As they try to make innovative product
which achieves product differentiation, company is trying to have more customers onboard by
bringing different product lines targeting large online market share. Further Sainsbury's has
started online sales of its products by creating a simple platform where consumer can place
orders. Sainsbury has established Efficient warehouses which can meet the demand of the online
customers at different location and can fulfil the same in lesser time (Fanelli and Braccio, 2018).
Company is constantly trying to have customer centric approach in it's working to derive the
customer satisfaction ion online purchase by taking measures like thank you message on
purchasing online, discounts for next purchase. They have built a strong customer database
which helps in knowing the taste, preference and buying patterns of the online consumers.
Marks and Spenser has revolutionized the business using many innovations. Since 1930 it
has continuously adapted the market change and is always the leading company to understand
the rapid changes in buying patterns of the consumers and is bringing the innovations
accordingly. It was one of the first supermarkets to sell the fresh chicken and fresh sandwich in
the UK market (Fengyi, 2021). Company was the first one to go carbon neutral and has
maintained the same over the years. It's brand strategy is to stay relevant to the customers, it
works with third party brands including wholesale, collaboration and investment. It has launched
an innovation hub recently to create sustainable food products. The adaptation of consumer
behaviour like veganism, sustainability and eco friendly approach, it has come up with nine

teams who will capitalize these trends. And launching all these products online as well. It has
generated various surveys, questioner to know the online customers even better.
The innovations have been fostered as company is focusing on the improvement of the
online offers to give customers more reasons to shop from the website, interesting offers,
discounts, holiday sale, customer loyalty program etc. have been maintained really well by the
company to step up the online game (Hafiz and et.al., 2022). Making brand more visible in the
eyes of existing and potential customers is the biggest strategy of the company as relatability
should not be lost.
Marks and Spenser innovation strategy has a powerful history. It believes in staying
relevant to the customers in the market. It has a huge online market base. Over the years it has
developed many products and sub brands which provides goods and services online as well.
Maintaining efficient supply chain of goods and taking environmental friendly measures and
running various drives which makes customer feels that they are satisfied while buying online as
well. Maintaining online customer satisfaction is important aspect of the company. The company
has operation globally, which develops need for a strong technological keep up, as online
database of the customers from foreign lands is also important (Lavorata and Sparks, 2018).
Innovation helps fuel the growth of the organization. The organizational environment
holds great importance for the implementation of the innovation in the company. The micro and
macro business environment has a crucial role to play as the rigidity becomes the hindrance in
the innovation approach of the company. World is going digital and business have been digital as
well. Organization like sainsburry and marks & Spenser are continuously trying to have an
adaptable organizational environment where innovation can be incorporated to enhance the
business and profitability. There is tough competition in the UK market, this makes business
becomes innovation driven, innovation in terms of products, Services, cost etc. a strong online
presence is necessary for companies to grab the market share.
2. Different types of innovation and how's they are processed within organization
Innovation is refers to the practical application of ideas that provide the result in different
new types of offerings related to product, services, business models and processes. This is also
improved or disrupt existing application or creating new solution. There are most of the
innovation which help to describe the innovation at smaller or gradual improvement on existing
products, services and processes which can be related to ground breaking innovation by using

different types of business models which help for transforming industries (Zhang, 2022I). Also,
sometimes it helps for complete the need of customer who are constantly changing environment
which improve different areas of business that help to solve emerging problems in order to
create values of customers. Innovations are vital to exist in such competitive business
environment. An organization can no longer play with cost and quantity, innovation of business
operations and products etc. is essential to keep the target market intact. Let's understand few
important ways of innovation and how they are incorporated in the business of the organization.
Incremental innovation- There are most of the business use incremental, continuous
improvement which is based on the existing concept, services and products in existing market.
Incremental innovation are better than previous version of product or services which are slight
variations on existing product formulation or service delivery (dris, Saridakis and Khan, 2022).
In this process it does not create new market because it is depended on attracting customer who
are ready for higher pay in order to fulfil the customer needs by identified on the basis of
feedback or behaviour which are given by customer.
This is processed in organization for instance, Sainsbury has rolled out innovation by
offering new recycling system to total of 550 supermarkets. Which actually is a great initiative
for starters. In this process help to provide users to recycles all flexible plastic packaging that
can not accept by local authorities. Also, this innovation help to improve brand image of
company in order to focus on attracting large number of customers. Also, it is work well for
society in order to promote environment protection action.
Disruptive innovation- This innovation is related to the technological or behavioural
innovation which help to forced by an emergence of disruptive innovation on the basis of recent
decades (Aldieri, Paolo and Zotti, 2021). Also, in this innovation it is help for follow the market
which is more specific related to product, services and brand. This can be leveraged buy
something on which company offer on the basis of result, name and general that can be in the
form of scalable changes that reaches many people at same time.
In context to organization it is processed For example, Netflix as market used to rely on
companies like TV series and Blockbusters for film as well as Netflix start offering DVD by mail
rentals services by innovative process by started offering videos streaming services on the basis
of monthly subscription. Also, for Netflix this is innovative services helped to get predictable

monthly revenue in order to target most of the youngsters who are in the age 16 to 30 years old.
This is called disruptive innovation which target large number of people at a time.
Radical innovation- This is refers to the radical innovation which really change the
circumstances of as brand whether in terms of market or business dynamics. Also, in this process
it can be possible that due to complete change it is help to make position, process, services, work
method and how it can be related to customers (Mazzarol, 2022).
Funnel innovation can be applicable for continuous the steam of innovative ideas that
are prototypes and screened for visibility. It has been justified that frugal innovations is help
for utilizing the respond towards limitation in order to focus more on financial institutions which
can be material ideas and use in practical manner.
Radical innovation can be processed on the basis of Apple's iPhone which introduced
when smartphone already exist in world but due to provide quality of product with high changes
helped to attract high income group people that made popular changes. Further, it has been
analysed that iPhone attract customer who are ready to uses good quality of service.
In order to used innovation in the organization helped for attracting large number of
customer by providing then additional benefit or services in existing product or services. The
additional services and products make customers feel like they have earned something from the
company which leads to the retention and potential attraction for the customers. Also, it helps to
focus on quality of product provided to customer in order to makes better from the competitor as
well as ready to balance between quality and price so that it can become competitive like Tesco
who have lower price than Sainsbury. Also, Tesco has large number of customer that it why
company produced large number of goods and services which is related to increase the supply of
product and able to set lower price as compared to competitors. Such large scale production also
means lower cost of the products. That is why innovation played important role in order to focus
on improving product and services that help to attract large number of customers (Gross,
Heptonstall and Speirs, 2018). From all the types of innovation it has been suggested that
incremental innovation help company to grow effectively as well as it also help to target large
number of customer at a time.
4P's of innovation are:
Product-

This is refers to the item that satisfy the consumer needs and wants, product can be
tangible goods and intangible services in the form of output.
Price of product-
Price is the amount which is paid by consumer for exchange of product as well as it is
proposed by company that played important role in order to focus more on marketing mix.
Promotion-
This is the next step which is refers as innovation and promotion of product.
Place-
This is one of the last step of innovations that help to put right product at right place, the
company help for choosing right places in order to convert the potential customers into an actual
customers.
For the selected it is necessary to focus more on product innovation process which help
for increase the volume of sale and profit margin because if company start for offering a better
quality product the sale of product will naturally increase.
Success of innovations in different organization:
Sainsbury's being the one of the most leading grocery retail business in the UK yet it has
also seen innovation failures. A company is not defined by the failures but the times it succeeded
and recognized by the customer. Sainsbury has taken many initiatives in the industry to bring up
the innovation to help customer serve better (Mason, R., 2019). Very first sand successful is
maintaining the database of its customers, when it launched the nectar cards, it attached the
customers to a program where they can record the transaction and buying pattern of the
customers to know the preference and customers better.
Further the adaptation of the predictive analytics & machine learning to identify the new
grocery market trends. This helped in keeping updated about the trends. Also, building a
powerful online site where customers can shop and get the fastest delivery. This gave customers
a very personal and effortless experience. Here launching products online and connecting to the
online base through various social media modes was a wonderful idea.
Yet, an innovation where sainsbury did not succeed was computer failure. In 2017
company saw downtime as there was lack of a strong information technology system behind the
computer setup. Maintaining online sites and computers requires a strong IT team which can
continuously ensure the effectiveness of the system and in times of failure can easily solve the

glitch (Schnee, C., 2022). Online presence is mandatory in such competitive market and this
incurs huge expense for the company to maintain such large portal and platforms. Such cost
sometimes result in increase of product cost. Therefore, a balance of efficiency and cost is
important which keeps the price of the final product minimum.
Marks & Spenser has adapted the market trends now and then. Incorporating innovations
to enhance the ways of working. Adaptation of consumer eating habits and grocery trends.
Providing reason to the consumers to shop again. Marks and Spenser has built a strong online
market base by taking various technological methods. Keeping strong and authentic product line.
Taking various sustainable measures to attract the online customers and keeping a strong
communication base with the buyers. The company has developed a separate application to give
a personalized experience to the customers. With easy yet enjoyable feature of getting notified
on each launch, offer and sell activity (Sparks, L., 2018). Has incorporated more ways to make
payment and facilitating cash on delivery for some areas. In times of pandemic they also
established contact less delivery systems to ensure the safety of the customers.
Both sainsburry and marks & Spenser are doing well when it comes to the business and
serving customers. The innovation aspect of the company is thriving to do better and enhance the
online segment of the business as it holds major importance in current times. Having tough
competition among the grocery segment of the business gives more growth opportunity to the
companies both online and offline. And at the same time both the companies are thriving for the
greater success in the industry in terms of market share and profitability. Therefore, companies
are taking greater innovation approaches in the method of working by bringing newness onboard.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that innovation and commercialization one of the important idea
for organization in order to provide new offerings, services, process, business model etc. In the
present report it has been discussed that there are different organization source and foster
innovation on the basis of environment and culture. Then, explained different types of innovation
which is used by company in which incremental innovation helped to target large number of
customer at a time.
REFERENCES
Books and journals

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Aldieri, L., Barra, C., Paolo Vinci, C. and Zotti, R., 2021. The joint impact of different types of
innovation on firm's productivity: evidence from Italy. Economics of Innovation and
New Technology, 30(2), pp.151-182.
Expósito, A. and Sanchis-Llopis, J.A., 2019. The relationship between types of innovation and
SMEs’ performance: A multi-dimensional empirical assessment. Eurasian Business
Review, 9(2), pp.115-135.
Fanelli, E. and Braccio, G., 2018. Energy performance and profitability of biomass boilers in
commercial sector: The case study of Sainsbury's stores in the UK. In 73rd Conference
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Idris, B., Saridakis, G. and Khan, Z., 2022. The effect of outward and inward internationalisation
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Lavorata, L. and Sparks, L. eds., 2018. Food retailing and sustainable development: European
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Mazzarol, T., 2022. Innovation and Commercialisation in Small Firms. Commercialisation and
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Schnee, C., 2022. Labour–Marks & Spencer statt Marx und Engels. In Das Vereinigte
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Sparks, L., 2018. Sustainable Development and Food Retailing: UK Examples. In Food
Retailing and Sustainable Development. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Zhang, H., 2022. Does combining different types of innovation always improve SME
performance? An analysis of innovation complementarity. Journal of Innovation &
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Online references
A, B., 2018. [Online]. Available through <>