Analysing Innovation and Commercialisation in Online Retailers

This report provides an analysis of innovation and commercialisation strategies employed by Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's, two prominent grocery retailers in the UK market. It explores how these organisations source and foster innovation, examining different types and processes of innovation, including radical, incremental, disruptive, and architectural innovation. The report uses the 4P's of innovation (Paradigm, Position, Process, and Product) to further analyse innovation strategies. It also discusses the process of innovation, from idea generation to diffusion and implementation, and analyses the successes and failures of innovation in the context of online grocery retail. Furthermore, the report recommends innovative products/processes for a new online grocery retailer, supported by innovation risk and benefit analysis, suggests funding channels, and recommends tools to retain/protect knowledge and intellectual property generated through the innovation process.

Innovation
and
Commercialisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1 ...........................................................................................................................................3
Discuss the ways in which different organizations source and foster innovation by utilizing
specific examples........................................................................................................................3
Detailed analysis of types and process of innovation .................................................................6
Analysing the success or failure of the innovation in the online grocery retailers.....................8
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................9
Recommending innovative products/processes for a new online grocery retailer, supported by
innovation risk and benefit analysis............................................................................................9
Suggestion of funding channels for the recommended innovation, supported by analysis of
business value for potential investment....................................................................................11
Recommendation of tools to retain/ protect the knowledge and intellectual property (IP),
generated through the innovation process above, complimented with a critical evaluation of
the tools.....................................................................................................................................13
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES...............................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a idea , method or device or the introducing something new. It is the
implementation of ideas, thoughts to bring the change in the existing product or to introduce a
new product in the market. Innovative products helps company in bringing success in the
organization . Innovation and commercialization both are the emerging technologies in today's
world. Innovation, invention and commercialization these terms used to incorporate new
products and services. Basically the commercialisation is the process of bringing new product in
the existing market(Gabriel, 2019). Innovation and commercialization both are interdependent on
each other. They both affect the success of the company. This report is the analysis of two
grocery reati8ler which is operating in the UK market. The first company on which the
evaluation is done is Marks & Spencer. Marks & Spencer is a international retail company and
its headquarter is situated in London, England, UK. This company is founded by Michael Marks
and Thomas Spencer in 1884. Marks & Spencer is listed on the London Stock Exchange. The
another company is Sainsbury. This is a retail company whose headquarter is situated in London,
England in UK. This is founded by John Hames Sainsbury in 1869. This report discussed about
that how the innovation is sourced and funded by the above mentioned two retailers. Further this
report also include the types and process of innovation with critical analysis of the success and
failure of the innovation. Apart from this, report also include the risk and benefit of innovation
and the sources of funds are also been discussed. Intellectual property and innovation action
plan is also been studied in this report.
TASK 1
Discuss the ways in which different organizations source and foster innovation by utilizing
specific examples
Foster innovation – It is defined as the adaptation of new ideas, technology and unexplored
market in the industry. It helps in increasing business profit. This helps in enhancing the skills to
develop the ideas. Those ideas that will help the company to perform the task in the better way.
Organization should have clear and straight strategy for executing the innovation in the
organization and to encourage the innovation in the working environment.

It is essential in the organization to train people to be more creative, developing and confident .
This is the most common challenge that organization deals with. Organization main focus is to
develop the new and creative ideas to enhance the business. To shape the organization with
innovation , invention and commercialization, there are certain factors which are discussed
below -
 Vision - A vision of the organization is essential because it plans the success for the
company. It is the document that explains where the organization is looking for. Vision
of the Marks & Spencer is to set a standard against which are measured – Benchmarking.
Further the vision of Sainsbury is to be most trustable brand of retail where the people
love to work and shop(Varadarajan, 2018).
 Leadership - It is the quality of a individual that influence the group of people of an
organization to attain the goals. This motivates individual to give their best in the firm.
Leaders use leadership style to motivate individuals. Marks & Spencer uses consultative
leadership style, this helps in taking decision while including subordinates. On the other
hand Sainsbury believes in democratic leadership style.
 Teams - Team refers those people who work together on a common objective.
Teamwork plays an important role in every organization(Anzola-Román and et, al.,2018).
Marks & Spencer motivates their staff and encourage them to give their best. They
motivates them by rewarding or by appraisal system. Sainsbury follows some values to
appreciate team work. This helps individual to feel motivated.
 Network – Network plays an essential role in the organization or outside the organization
also. This basically describes the reach of the organization , interpersonal relationship.
Network helps company in managing the things. Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury both
using Intranet in their company to get the things done easily.
Types of Innovation

There are many types of innovation that can be used by the company to get the desired result.
Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury both implements innovation in their company with the help of
Following are the types of innovation -
 Radical Innovation - This type of innovation is depend on the new technology and the
new market. It assist company in attaining the competitive advantage in the market.
Marks & Spencer apply this strategy to introduce the new product line in the market. It
helps company in sustaining the position in the market(Mazzarol and Reboud, 2020).
Sainsbury use this innovation to change the whole product into some new brand. To
launch the new product or the store in the market digital innovation plays an important
role.
 Incremental Innovation - This is one of the most common type of innovation that
operates in existing technology and in existing market. Marks & Spencer uses this type of
innovation to bring changes in the existing product like to add some feature or to change
the product design , this helps company in attracting more customers. Sainsbury just
don't only apply this on product but they also apply this on services. With the help of this
Sainsbury has enhanced its deliver services.
 Disruptive Innovation - This type of innovation operates with the help of new
technology in the existing market. Marks & Spencer used Internet Technology to disrupt
the existing industry for beauty products. Sainsbury use this type of innovation to
interrupt the existing market with new product to get the best outcome.
 Architectural Innovation - It is something that company operates in existing
technology in the new market. By applying every skills , experience and technology
company like Marks & Spencer builds apps , platforms to offer new products and
services in the new markets. Sainsbury uses this innovation type to bring sustainable
performance in the company.

Detailed analysis of types and process of innovation
4P's of Innovation
The 4p's of innovation model was developed by John Bessant and Joe Tidd. Company use
4p's of innovation , to understand and to create the innovation strategy 4p's of innovation.
Following are the 4p's -
 Paradigm- Its is a model or approach to think about the problems that are occurring in
the organization. It deals directly with the uncertainty of the business. This is specific
innovation category(Rawat, 2020). Basically it is the new process to attract customers
and increase the sales of the company. Marks & Spencer use sustainability strategy to
accelerate business towards in delivering the products and services to the customers.
Sainsbury was the first retailer to shift paradigm. They offered self service concept for the
customer so that they don't have to wait.
 Position - It is totally related to the perception of every individual person. It is the
method that affects the innovation. It is basically about repositioning. It can said that it
is the shifting of product and services in a new market. Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury
both the companies use this technique to bring or to transfer the product line in the new
market.
 Process - It is the implementation of new product in the market. There are many process
in the company that are connected with supplying, selling , recruiting and accounting.
Marks & Spencer improves process in the organization to make things easier , quicker,
faster and more efficient(Milan and et, al., 2020. Company is using different strategies to
execute or to analyse the previous procedures of the organization working. Sainsbury
improves process to assesses the product in the market in the most efficient way.
Innovation in the process can be generated from the company itself.
 Product- This is the most common and famous strategy that is used by the every
organization. This help organization in sustaining competitive advantage in the business
environment(Gobble, 2018). Marks & Spencer innovate new and differentiate products

to satisfy the customer needs , wants and desire. Sainsbury use this type of innovation
the most in the organization . It helps Sainsbury in creating an sustainable environment in
the organization.
Process of Innovation
It is the process of implementing steps to structure the new things. Is is basically a
systematic path to introduce a new technology that is needed in the delivery or production
process. There are certain steps in the process of innovation -
 Generating idea and mobilization – It is the starting line for generating the new ideas.
This is not really possible to generate all the ideas that will resolve the problem . It is the
important part of the process. This process is helpful in doing with the team because this
helps in developing more ideas. After generating the ideas it is important to record the
ideas or to mobilize them. Marks & Spencer believes in team work which helps
company in developing the new and creative ideas to achieve the organizational goals.
On the other hand Sainsbury's , develop the ideas according to the requirement of
customers needs and wants and after they mobilize them.
 Advocacy and Screening - This is the stage, that evaluate the advantage and
disadvantage of idea that is developed by the company. Basically the ideas that are
provided by the team members are evaluated by the manager. With the help of evaluation
process the companies get more new and creative idea in the company. Marks & Spencer
and Sainsbury's gets the clarity and also it helps company in taking the decision
effectively.
 Experimentation - This stage plays the crucial part in the process of innovation. It is
the testing of ideas that helps company in creating and refining the products. To do
experiments , new technologies helps company to carried court the minimum cost. This
helps company in converting the idea into the product , basically it helps in implement
ion .

 Commercialization - The main objective of commercialization is to develop market
value for the idea by focusing on its impact. It is the process through which the new
product and services is delivered in the market. It helps Marks & Spencer in enhancing
the growth of business(Mazzarol and Reboud, 2020).
 Diffusion and implementation - These are the heads and tails of the coin. Diffusion is
the acceptance of the idea and the implementation is needed to utilize or to produce the
innovation in the market. This process is done in every organization who are working in
the business market(Wonglimpiyarat and Billington, 2018). Diffusion and
implementation is opportunity for bringing the future ideas. After completing the process
of communication and feedback company moves towards the step of implementation.
Companies like Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury start the process of implementation
after doing the proper procedures.
Analysing the success or failure of the innovation in the online grocery retailers
This can be said from the above report that innovation play an integral role in the
business operation. Innovation help company in bringing success in the organization but
sometimes this can also lead to failure. Innovation helped businesses in growing by doing all the
modification with time. Innovation creates major impact on the business entity. In context of
Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's both the companies have already taken certain steps to bring
innovation in the organization over the time. This helped companies in building their reputation
in the business environment and also in grabbing the attention of the customer towards the
organization. Time to time changes in the organization is necessary to bring sustainability in the
company. Innovation is the continuous process which is used by every organization to bring new
and creative changes in the company(Hutschenreiter, Weber, and Rammer, 2019).

TASK 2
Recommending innovative products/processes for a new online grocery retailer, supported by
innovation risk and benefit analysis.
Innovation is the process by which business operation bring new products and services or
do significant changes in the existing product. In order to increase the return on investment
through innovation -
Sainsbury
Following is the business case of Sainsbury to take the effective decision -
Executive
summary
This is recommended to the J Sainsbury Plc to develop contactless
shopping in their offline stores. This is a larger version of vending
machines this is the process in which the buyer will eventually and
directly scan the card in the machine , by which the buyer can easily
choose the product from the side panel from the machine. Payment of the
product will immediately made after buying the product by scanning the
card. This is the innovative idea that brings changes in the organization.
Problem
statement
This is the impact of Covid – 19 that the buyer are getting curious and
being conscious about getting in touch with other persons in physical
store and that why the customers are preferring to do contactless activities.
This idea will help customers in fulfilling their desire without any
complication.
Possible
Innovations
Possible innovation that the firm should do is to use the advance
technology to have the effective version of vending machines to scan the
cards by which the payments can be done easily.
Why idea is
innovative
Sainsbury will be the first company to implement the concept of vending
machines in the company as this is a new and creative as well as

innovative idea. This will be the only company to acquire this concept on
the large scale.
Market analysis The process of market analysis is use to identify or to evaluate the success
rate of this innovative idea(Du and O’Connor, 2021).
Funding Sainsbury's is one of the biggest retail company , so it will be easy for the
company to take the bank loans because they have a good reputation in the
market with the large amount of turnover.
Benefits Through this idea, company can increase the profit and can get the
effective result and will also attract the customers to purchase the product .
This will bring the sustainability in the company.
Risk As such this is an new and innovative idea , so there is a possibility that
the customers might don't adapt this method. This is a risky process to
bring in the company.
Marks & Spencer -
Business case of Marks & Spencer are as follows -
Executive
summary It is suggested to the Marks & Spencer to take the full use technology in
the company to developing the products & services. The proper use of
technology will solve the problem of the organization that they are facing
in the operation. This will also help the staff of the company to increase
the performance and to maximize the profit.
Problem statement Company have to take innovative actions because from the pervious
years logistic of the company is increasing because of less customer
satisfactory goods and miscommunication between the vendor and the
supplier . Due to the mismanagement in the inventory system .

Possible
Innovations
To get the best outcome or to achieve the desired goals the company need
to use the best possible option available for the technical infrastructure.
Company can also bring digitalization.
Why idea is
innovative
The idea is innovative because mostly the firms do not take the proper use
of technology. In order to solve the problem in the organization this will
be the innovative method for the company.
Market analysis Company can use the focus group methodology to identify the success
rate of the organization(Harel, Schwartz and Kaufmann, 2020). They can
use the qualitative and quantitative methods to do the market research.
Funding Company can offer share to the general public in respect to collect the
more investor so that they can help company in operation.
Benefits This innovation will increase the profitability of the firm as the
technology will enhance the productivity of the company. This is the
advantage for the company as the today's business environment is totally
based on technology.
Risk The risk rate of this innovation is very high . If the company fails to adapt
the technology and this can lead company towards the failure .
Suggestion of funding channels for the recommended innovation, supported by analysis of
business value for potential investment
In order to expand the business or to innovate the new products the firms needs some
funds . Here are some sources of funds -

Retained Earnings – This is the internal source of the company. Company invests in the
business operation from their own earned profits(Xu and Maas, 2019). It strengthen the financial
position of the company which increase the shares market values. Following are the advantages
and disadvantages -
 Advantage- The foremost advantage of this source of funding as this does not involve
any explicit cost in the form of interest. It also increase the capacity of the business to
accept and to identify the unpredictable losses.
 Disadvantage - The major disadvantage that company faces is undistributed profit that
remain exactly the same as it was. In this process the profits of business also get fluctuate
this create dissatisfaction among the shareholders.
Debt Capital - This is a source of fund in which the company takes fund as a debt from outside
the company or from outsiders. This type of debt need to repay to the outsiders on a given date
that is decided at the time of borrowing.
 Advantage – One of the advantage is that it permits a business to purchase a small
amount of money into a larger amount. It can be said that the company can made the
bigger amount of finance.
 Disadvantage - This is the biggest disadvantage of debt financing is that the interest is
charged on the borrowed amount and must be paid on the time. The debt amount will be
paid after including the amount of interest.
Equity capital:- Equity is referred as capital that is used by the company to purchase the
assets, to invest in further projects and in fund operations. In this basically the firm offers the
ownership to the general public in return to get the investment from the public.
 Advantage - The main advantage of the equity capital that it does not required any
repayment means the company does not have to return the amount to the outsider and no
interest is charged. In equity capital the risk is very low.

 Disadvantage- The foremost disadvantage of equity capital is that the company have to
share or to dilute the portion of their owners. A fix amount of companies profit will be
given to the shareholders(Bunduchi and et, al., 2022).
Recommendations for Sainsbury:-
On the basis of above data it is suggested to the company that they should use the
retained earning source of fund as this satisfy the needs that are required to do the innovation in
the company and also they have a high profitability. Retained earnings save the cost of interest.
Recommendations for Marks & Spencer -
It is suggested to Marks & Spencer that they should use equity capital; as the source of
funding because this will help company in increasing the amount of finance and also there is no
repayment required.
Recommendation of tools to retain/ protect the knowledge and intellectual property (IP),
generated through the innovation process above, complimented with a critical evaluation of
the tools.
There are various laws and guidelines which protect the innovative ideas and
documentation and it is important to protect these as this prohibit the competitors to steal or to
copy the idea from them. There are various intellectual property tools which are discussed
below-
 Patents:- It is an exclusive right that gives the legal right to the owner to exclude others
from selling or to produce the invented product or process of doing work. To get the
patent , technical information must be disclosed to the public in the form of application.
 Trademarks:- It is the symbol that is issued by the firm to distinguish the product and
services from the other enterprise. It is basically a symbol that is used to represent the
business. Intellectual property rights protect the trademarks.

 Copyrights:- It is the right that is given to the owner of the business to adapt, distribute,
display and to perform a innovative task for a respected time. It is the right that the
businesses have on their work , it protects the original work of author , artist from the
duplicity frauds.
Recommendations -
On the basis of above discussion it is recommended to Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury's
to get the patent rights as this will help company in protecting the products & services from
copying by its competitors and also it will help company to sell the innovative products in the
market.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded, innovation plays essential role in every
organization. Innovation is basically a creative idea that transformed into practical reality.
Innovation helps companies in making new strategies to achieve the predetermined goals.
Companies takes help of intervention to protect a firm from frauds. Commercialization is a wide
range that aids company in bringing new products or services to market and it also allows
company to produce more revenues. This report gives emphasises on that how Marks & Spencer
and Sainsbury's bring innovation in their company by using various types , process and the
critical study is also done of innovation success and failure. This report also discussed about the
business case of both the retailers and their innovation risk and benefits along with the
recommendation of sources of funding. The report also include tools to protect the intellectual
property for the innovation.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Gabriel, K., 2019. Accelerating innovation in a changing world. International Journal of
Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, 2(2), pp.105-114.
Varadarajan, R., 2018. Innovation, innovation strategy, and strategic innovation. In Innovation
and strategy. Emerald Publishing Limited.
Mazzarol, T. and Reboud, S., 2020. Disruptive Innovation and the Commercialisation of
Technology. In Entrepreneurship and Innovation (pp. 265-310). Springer, Singapore.
Rawat, P., 2020. Barriers to innovation and their impact on innovation in Indian
MSMEs. International Journal of Research, Innovation and Commercialisation, 3(2),
pp.94-108.
Milan and et, al., 2020. Exploring the impact of organisational, technological and relational
contingencies on innovation speed in the light of open innovation. Industry and
innovation, 27(7), pp.804-836.
Mazzarol, T. and Reboud, S., 2020. Adoption and diffusion of innovation. In Entrepreneurship
and innovation (pp. 165-189). Springer, Singapore.
Hutschenreiter, G., Weber, J. and Rammer, C., 2019. Innovation support in the enterprise sector:
Industry and SMEs.
Du, K. and O’Connor, A., 2021. Examining economic complexity as a holistic innovation system
effect. Small Business Economics, 56(1), pp.237-257.
Xu, Z. and Maas, G., 2019. Innovation and entrepreneurial ecosystems as important building
blocks. In Transformational Entrepreneurship Practices (pp. 15-32). Palgrave Pivot,
Cham.
Bunduchi and et, al., 2022. Digital product innovation approaches in entrepreneurial firms–the
role of entrepreneurs’ cognitive frames. Technological Forecasting and Social
Change, 175, p.121343.
Harel, R., Schwartz, D. and Kaufmann, D., 2020. Organizational culture processes for promoting
innovation in small businesses. EuroMed Journal of Business.
Wonglimpiyarat, J. and Billington, M., 2018. Risk management and auditing of technology
incubators/science parks. The Routledge Companion to Risk, Crisis and Security in
Business, p.381.
Gobble, M.M., 2018. Digitalization, digitization, and innovation. Research-Technology
Management, 61(4), pp.56-59.
Anzola-Román and et, al.,2018. Organizational innovation, internal R&D and externally sourced
innovation practices: Effects on technological innovation outcomes. Journal of Business
Research, 91, pp.233-247.