Seattle Innovation Symposium – University of Washington – 2008

I will be chairing a panel discussion on innovation at the 2008 Seattle Innovation Symposium (June 9-11) at the University of Washington. The panel will debate a simple, yet critical, question – Does size matter in respect to sustained innovation? For the panel, I will draw on a completed research project that examined challenges faced by incumbent firms when trying to build sustainable innovation programs. This project was conducted as part of the i4i research program. The final report from this project will be published in Research-Technology Management. Please see below for details:

Braganza, A., Awazu, Y., and Desouza, K.C. “Sustaining Innovation: The Challenge for Incumbents,” Research-Technology Management, Forthcoming.

Abstract
In today’s competitive environment, the ability of an organization to innovate is considered paramount. While most organizations have flashes or spurts of innovation, only a handful of organizations have been able to innovate on a continuous and sustained basis. In this paper, we report on the challenges faced by firms when trying to build sustainable innovation programs. These findings have been deduced from an examination of innovation programs in over 30 organizations based in North America, Europe, and Asia.