Innovation Management: Theories, Strategies, and Competitive Advantage

This essay delves into the critical role of innovation in business, emphasizing its significance for organizational growth and competitive advantage. It explores various innovation theories, including architectural and disruptive innovation, illustrating their practical applications with real-world examples from the IT industry and the evolution of the computer mouse. The essay discusses how companies can leverage these theories to develop new products, improve existing services, and effectively compete in the market. It highlights the importance of adapting to changing customer needs and demands, and the need for continuous innovation to maintain a strong market position. The essay also examines the dynamics of established players versus new entrants, particularly in the context of disruptive innovation, and the strategies companies can employ to navigate these challenges. The content is contributed by a student to be published on the website Desklib. Desklib is a platform which provides all the necessary AI based study tools for students.

MANAGING
INOVATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN TASK...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
....................................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a very crucial aspect for any organization as well as individual for growing
over period of time. There are various ways through which organization innovate to convince its
customer and to compete effectively in the business market. Therefore, The need and importance
of innovation can not be undermined, given the kind of benefits it provide to organization.
Innovation can take various forms, It can be in terms of improvement in existing products and
services or a completely new invention in the relevant field. Companies all over the world has
been innovating in their products, services as well as processes (Tucker, ed., 2012 ). The industry
which has seen the most innovation in past is Information Technology, Various companies like
IBM, Apple, Microsoft and other software developing companies like Oracle etc. has changed
the whole structure as well as the game of Industry. A Technological company can not survive
without innovation, it will continuously have to innovate in order to sustain in the market and
compete with players. It requires a large amount of investment in R&D of company. This Essay
will throw some light on various innovation theories, its importance and implications in
Developing and Inventing new products within an organization and how such innovation can
help them to compete successfully in the market.
MAIN TASK
Innovation in an organization is very important without it a company can not survive in a
competitive market for a long Haul. There is a constant need for innovation in the business, This
happens because customers needs and demands is dynamic in nature and is changing on a
continuous basis. The role of companies and businesses is to assess these change in patterns of
demands and innovate in their products, process as well as services on that basis (Clegg,
Kornberger and Pitsis, 2015). There has been some industries which have affected most from the
kind of innovation that has taken place over period of time, These industries are construction,
Information Technology, Electronic industry etc. Businesses all over the world has been growing
by implementing various innovation techniques and serving their customers well by filling the
void of their needs and demands. There are various innovation theories which are propounded by
various authors. These theories are a benchmark for companies all over the world to implement
within organization so that effective as well as efficient innovation can take place. Two of these
theories is explained in detail as under :
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The Theory of Architectural Innovation
This is a unique theory for innovation. There is a clear difference between Innovation and
invention. An innovation would include Change in an existing features of a product so that it
could full fill the demands and needs of consumers. On the other hand, Invention would mean
giving birth to an absolutely new product or service as well as processes. An innovation is
judged by its ability to earn profit, but such is not the case with Invention. Therefore, innovation
can not be discussed, without discussing about its ability to earn profit. Architectural innovation
means an innovation in the architecture of a product that amends the way different components
of that particular system interact with each other. The modification can be in terms of a smaller
size, lighter weight of product etc. It basically means the architecture or the shape and size of a
product or service is changed or modified so that demands of consumers are met and market
share can be captured. Established players usually operates in a market where, the overall
architecture of a product is usually fixed (Hall and Wagner, 2012). There has been some cases, in
which the established players has been able to innovate by themselves and is able to establish
their architecture as the main and dominant one in their product category. The example of such is
IBM with its unique personal computer design. However, once the architecture is fixed, the
existing players will differentiate on the basis of improving and innovating in existing products
along with making some considerable changes within the services as well as processes. As per
the views of Sanjeev Chopra, 2007, Architectural innovation takes place when a company
realises that there is a need to amend products as well as services in such a way that the new
kinds of aspirations as well as demands of individual consumers can be met. Such architectural
transformation can take place to ease the life of consumer, by facilitating them through
considerable changes and improvements in products so that they can be used effectively by
consumers.
This Theory is most used by IT Industry to continuously change and transform its
electronic products and service to meet the various kinds of demands raised by customers. The
IT industry can not survive without innovation, an organization within this industry will have to
keep on innovating so that it can sustain itself in market (Rasiah, Jomo and Felker, 2013). Some
of examples include apple computers which brought Apple 1 Computer in 1976, This machine
had a memory of only 256 Kilobytes, and the recently launched apple computer has a memory of
even 4 to 5 GB. Such kind of transformation within the architecture of its products is a part of
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Architectural innovation. Structural development by definition puts a premium on investigation
of new plan and osmosis of new learning. Existing firms experience difficulty making this
progress as the procedure of revelation and building new abilities as a rule requires some
investment and duty. The occupants regularly attempt to clarify the contrasts amongst old and
new advances inside the idea of the present design and neglect to ace the new before it is past the
point of no return.
The Theory of Disruptive Innovation
This a very effective theory of innovation. It has proved from very past a very powerful
way of thinking about growth which is driven by innovation. It has been termed as a guiding star
for some of the managers of Small and Medium Business enterprises around the world, they have
praised the theory stating that it helped them a lot in innovating and Growing their business
beyond a point. The Theory's core concepts in recent times have been misunderstood by people
and managers and its basic features have been misapplied. There is additional changes that have
been made in the theory but the same have been overshadowed by the initial information which
was present from the past (Drucker, 2012). Disruption Innovation theory basically is a process
under which a smaller company which is not having a lot of resources in comparison to various
competitors within the market is able to challenge successfully established players and
businesses within the market.
Usually the existing players would focus on improving existing Products as well as
services, in this process an organization usually exceeds the needs of some of the segments
which are there in market while other segments are usually ignored, because there is a limitation
for these companies, in terms of Managerial power and Resources that they carry. This creates an
opportunity for new entrants within the industry to target those segments specifically which are
being overlooked by established market players (Inauen and Schenker-Wicki, 2012). These
Entrants provides products or services with better quality at a very considerable lower price that
what is prevailing in the market. The established players would not retaliate on such steps taken
by new entrants, this is because they would be chasing Higher profitability and would be less
concerned with the segment which is being overlooked by them in the past while framing market
strategy. The new entrants then Move slowly in the upper segment or upmarket, by delivering
the kind of performance that the customer of existing players would be expecting. The previous
advantage that gained success for these new entrants remains with it. As per the views of Clayton
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M. Christensen, Michael E. Raynor and Rory McDonald, 2015. The disruption basically occurs
when the mainstream customers who were loyal to existing and established players have now
start adopting the products as well as services of new entrants and hence creating problems for
already established players.
This theory usually originates in low end and new markets. The concept of Disruptive
innovation is made possible because it gets started in the markets which are being overlooked by
established players. Low end market exist because established players does not focus much about
this segment and they continuously keeps focusing on higher end segment, which is a source of
higher profitability for them, they tend to provide them with improved goods and services and
does not pay attention to customers who are less demanding and does not generate enough
profitability for them (Hallerstede, 2013). In case of new market, the disrupters creates their own
market, they try to turn non consumers into people who consumes on a consistent basis.
Therefore, it is quite inevitable that Disruptive innovation usually starts from these two main
market, Lower End and New Market. The main thing about this concept is that it don't catch up
with mainstream customers until high quality services or standards will be provided by them to
Those customers. This is the primary reason that, big and established players do not take these
small players seriously and don't even think of any chances that their market share will be
captured by these players, but in the end such players do change the market structure and pattern
and influence the profitability of already established players.
COMPUTER MOUSE
A computer Mouse is a pointing device, which is hand held. It detects motion relative to a
surface. Before the invention of Computer mouse, A user has to give command to computer
through keyboard and it would take a lot of time for users to reach from one task to another. The
invention of mouse in around 1968 has made it convenient for consumers to use computer
effectively as well as efficiently. Originally it was wired with computer. The job of a mouse is
basically to control the motion of a pointer Within a Graphical User Interface. There are two
buttons and a tracking ball in a typical mouse (Damanpour and Aravind, 2012). The buttons are
used to select a particular icon or to open it. While right Button is used mostly for various other
purposes. With the help of a tracking ball the user can scroll pages very easily and conveniently.
The computer Mouse was first used commercially when the big IT giant IBM manufactured a PC
with a mouse. It was a wired mouse and helped a user to navigate freely within the computer
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anywhere. It became commercially viable from 1998 and people started using it quite
extensively. Ever since then there has been various architectural modification which has taken
place in this device or product.
(Source : https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001083.htm)
Before it was a wooden box with just a button on it, Later on a track ball was added to make it
easy for consumers or users to scroll down any page easily and conveniently. It is a classic
example of Architectural innovation, various companies then have came up with different kinds
of mouse which aided uses to work easily as well as efficiently (Zedtwitz and et. al., 2015).
Apple and IBM then paced up the process of Innovating the architecture of mouse and this
healthy competition among Established Players lead to various benefits to consumers. When
IBM brings mouse as a device for computer, later on Apple, which was a small company
comparatively at that time acted as a disruptor and it also innovated and brought a new kind of
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Illustration 1: First Computer Mouse

mouse, and its ultimate target was consumers and not business houses or industry in general,
Consumer segment was neglected by IBM as it does not see that much of profitability in that
segment. This opened up doors of opportunities for Apple.
Wired and Wireless Computer Mouse
A wired mouse was the initial invention that took place in 20th century. It came up as a
handy tool for users as they have to use keyboard to command computer to change tasks and to
move from one operation to another. A wired mouse would transmit information a bit rapidly
than a wireless mouse, and this is the reason why it will respond more quickly than a wireless
mouse as a wireless mouse will have to to transmit information wirelessly. A wired Mouse is
usually cheaper than than a wireless mouse. But over a period of time, The prices of wireless
mouse have Plunged considerably, because of the higher demand of products within consumers.
A wired mouse uses computer to power it self and there is literally no need of any batteries
unlike a wireless mouse, which power itself through batteries. Wireless mouse is way more
convenient way to operate a computer than a wired mouse (Markides, 2013). It is quite Handy
for the purpose of Travelling as the user would not have to worry about the wires which needs to
be plugged in to the laptop or computer and it can be used anywhere on the go. Some of the
benefits are that a wireless mouse can be used from anywhere in the room as compared to a
wired mouse, which can only be used if it is plugged in to computer. There are various reasons
that a particular user of computer would choose wireless mouse instead of a Wired Mouse. Apple
Brought computers with wireless mouse and it boosted its sales as well as profitability for a
while as people thought of it as a new concept and wanted to take benefits of the same.
Advantages and disadvantages of Computer Mouse
Advantages : A mouse is a very handy input device of computer, it is used for the
purpose of navigating in computer from one task to another in a graphical user interface (Hall
and Wagner, 2012). The main role of this device is to make accessibility of computer a bit easy
for its user. There are various advantages of a computer mouse like it is easy to operate, does not
carry much of weight in it, it is way easy to handle a computer mouse than any other input device
of computer. There are a large variety of mouse which are available to suit needs of different
individuals (Smith and Lewis, 2012). It gives the user a freedom to move cursor in any direction
at will and there is no need for specific command. It is one of the most convenient input device
ever invented.
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Disadvantages : A computer mouse is linked with wire and proper maintenance of wire all the
time is a hustle process and it involves consumption of precious time. The compute mice needs a
flat surface to function smoothly and to manage its movements. But the fact of the matter is that
Flat Surface might not be available all the time, especially when travelling in a plane or car etc.
This has cause the use of mouse to a limit. There has been incidence when people has
complained that using of mouse extensively has lead to a pain in tendons of hands, because of a
continuous use of wrist as well as hands (O'Reilly and Tushman, 2013). The Computer Mouse
requires Space and it have to move at a flat surface which is not necessarily available always.
Proper Health and safety of people should be taken care of by company, while designing the
right kind of Device for people after all innovation is all about taking care of consumers needs
and demands.
Future of Computer Mouse
A Cap Mouse : So named on the grounds that it's capacitive touch, it's perhaps the most
finished idea configuration, mapped with a progression of sensible signals, not simply energy
looking over and squeeze zooming, but rather even thumb flicking to move photographs and hurl
windows around the screen (Lakhani, Lifshitz-Assaf and Tushman, 2012). The fashioners settled
on a cognizant choice to leave the snap system set up, on the grounds that, as on the Mac Book
Pro trackpad of their curve rival, that physical clicking decreases client disarray.
A Orb Mouse : It's like the FTIR yet with a semi-circle where the hand rests. The group mapped
gaming summons to show how areas of the circle could control diverse bits of an application.
Something about that circle bodes well, similar to it is less demanding to recollect signals at
various clock positions or something like that.
Side Mouse : This unusual half-mouse has a tracker and clicker, much the same as mice have
had for ages. In any case, it likewise has a camera that looks forward, translating what your
fingers are doing and why. The excellence is that it's fundamentally a Natal for your hand—you
can even set it a foot away, and motion at it with the two hands, if that is the thing that an
application calls for (Yalabik, Howard and Roden, 2012). The catch is that when you are
utilizing it, you need to lay your fingers on the table, and it's evidently difficult to program
around the majority of that automatic hand development.
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CONCLUSION
From the above discussion it is quite clear that innovation is a very useful and important
tool in business. An organization can not prosper or grow without adequate innovation
techniques in its Armoury. There have been instances where companies who were well
established as well as well versed have nosedived into ashes. The primary reasons behind such
kind of downfall was the lack of innovation among management and their unwillingness to
change with time and this lead to a very negative impact on overall productivity as well as
profitability of companies. Managing Innovation is a very crucial task for any individual as well
as organization which wants to prosper and establish itself in the market. There has been constant
change in various needs as well as demands of Consumers. People have a lot of choices in terms
of where they want to spend their money, to capture market share, it is crucial that organizations
follows consumers and their demand patterns, and innovate accordingly. There is a constant need
of Spending a good amount of money on Research and development process, so that new and
innovative products, processes as well as services can be brought on table.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Tucker, J.B. ed., 2012. Innovation, dual use, and security: managing the risks of emerging
biological and chemical technologies. MIT press.
Clegg, S.R., Kornberger, M. and Pitsis, T., 2015. Managing and organizations: An introduction
to theory and practice. Sage.
Rasiah, R., Jomo, K.S. and Felker, G., 2013. Industrial technology development in Malaysia:
industry and firm studies. Routledge.
Drucker, P., 2012. Managing for results. Routledge.
Hallerstede, S.H., 2013. Managing the lifecycle of open innovation platforms. Springer Science
& Business Media.
Damanpour, F. and Aravind, D., 2012. Organizational structure and innovation revisited: From
organic to ambidextrous structure. In Handbook of organizational creativity (pp. 483-
513).
Zedtwitz, M. and et. al., 2015. A typology of reverse innovation. Journal of Product Innovation
Management. 32(1). pp.12-28.
Markides, C.C., 2013. Business model innovation: What can the ambidexterity literature teach
us?. The Academy of Management Perspectives. 27(4). pp.313-323.
Smith, W.K. and Lewis, M.W., 2012. Leadership skills for managing paradoxes. Industrial and
Organizational Psychology. 5(2). pp.227-231.
Lakhani, K., Lifshitz-Assaf, H. and Tushman, M., 2012. Open innovation and organizational
boundaries: the impact of task decomposition and knowledge distribution on the locus
of innovation.
Yalabik, B., Howard, M. and Roden, S., 2012. The innovation game: lessons in strategy and
managing operations. International Journal of Operations & Production Management.
32(12). pp.1441-1459.
Hall, J. and Wagner, M., 2012. Integrating sustainability into firms' processes: performance
effects and the moderating role of business models and innovation. Business Strategy
and the Environment. 21(3). pp.183-196.
O'Reilly, C.A. and Tushman, M.L., 2013. Organizational ambidexterity: Past, present, and
future. The academy of management perspectives. 27(4). pp.324-338.
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Inauen, M. and Schenker-Wicki, A., 2012. Fostering radical innovations with open innovation.
European Journal of Innovation Management. 15(2). pp.212-231.
Hall, J. and Wagner, M., 2012. Integrating sustainability into firms' processes: performance
effects and the moderating role of business models and innovation. Business Strategy
and the Environment. 21(3). pp.183-196.
Online
Christensen, C., Raynor, M., Mcdonald, R, 2018. What is Disruptive Innovation [Online].
Available through :<https://hbr.org/2015/12/what-is-disruptive-innovation>.
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