New Frontiers of Knowledge Management: Review in Knowledge Management Research & Practice

A very positive review of my book has been published in the current issue of Knowledge Management Research & Practice (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005).

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Book Review
Knowledge Management Research & Practice (2007) 5, 71–72. doi:10.1057/palgrave.kmrp.8500122

New Frontiers of Knowledge Management
Kevin C. Desouza (Ed)
Published by Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke (UK), New York (USA), 2005,
ISBN-13: 978-1-4039-4240-1, ISBN-10: 1-4039-4240-4, 275pp
Price £60

Reviewed by, Yanqing Duan of the University of Bedfordshire Business School, U.K.

New Frontiers of Knowledge Management is a contributed volume edited by Kevin C. Desouza. The book contains a collection of 12 chapters, which cover a range of topics focusing on the new frontiers in knowledge management with creative thinking, novel insights and innovative ideas. Any attempt to edit a book on 'the new frontiers' of this multi-disciplinary and widely debated field would be a challenge. Therefore, the editor should be commended on his attempt.

The book starts with an excellent introduction by the editor, which is a must read section for any reader before embarking the rest of the chapters. It defines the term 'new frontier' in knowledge management, sets up the rationale for the book and provides a succinct summary of each author's novelty in his/her contribution to the book. The editor stresses the necessity of sharing options and feelings on the new frontiers and highlights his three motivations in pulling together this unique book, which aims to

'provide an avenue for researchers and practitioners to be adventurous, venture out, and postulate some of their creative thinking.'

'assemble authors who would cross the local space and write on knowledge management in an integrated fashion' and

'seek out some of the new insights and provide an avenue for them to be presented.'

There is no doubt that the editor has achieved the above by providing an opportunity for knowledge management scholars and practitioners to share and exchange their insights and views and be explorative in seeking new ideas and innovative development.

Topics covered in the book include: science and technology knowledge management, knowledge visualization, personalizing knowledge delivery services, knowledge security in organizations, knowledge markets, software artefacts for knowledge management, ubiquitous computing in networked organizations, collaborative enterprises, knowledge flow dynamics, knowledge integration in teams, the role of incentives in knowledge transfer, and innocuous knowledge management.

The book is a mix of debates from social, organizational, technological and economic perspectives, all aiming to offer their thoughts and insights in addressing knowledge management challenges and problems, and attempting to seek new solutions. The strength of the book lies in its diversity, quality, depth and the authors' employment of multi-disciplinary perspectives in their treatments.

For example, from an organizational perspective, Chapter 5 addresses knowledge security in organizations in three focused areas: people, products and processes; and Chapter 10 draws from knowledge flow theory to develop a multi-dimensional model to inform organizational design. From a more technological point of view, Chapter 13 argues the value of innocuous knowledge and explores the management of innocuous knowledge with distributed knowledge networks. The discussion on how market mechanisms can help facilitate knowledge management in Chapter 6 and the role of incentives in knowledge transfer in Chapter 12 offers different aspects of arguments from an economic dimension. Chapter 9 argues the importance of collaborative enterprise from a more humanistic aspect and proposes a generic framework for collaboration, which incorporates the influential factors and the types of capability that needs to be developed.

Most of the authors set forth their arguments on addressing knowledge management problems and challenges from mixed perspectives of social, organizational and technological dimensions. For example, Chapter 2's contributors share their insights on science and technology management emphasizing the conversion of technical textual data to technical knowledge; Chapter 3 emphasizes the importance of making knowledge visible and postulates how this can be achieved; Chapter 4 addresses the challenges in personalizing knowledge delivery services, arguing that knowledge is emergent and needs to evolve based on its particular context; Chapter 7 explores the diversity of software artefacts use in supporting information and knowledge management through the four analytical lenses of interaction, interpretation, connection and collaboration; Chapter 8 argues the potential impact of the ubiquitous information environment (UIE) and proposes a framework for studying the UIE technologies and invites more research in this area; and Chapter 11 explores knowledge integration processes within teams and tests the link between a team's human capital and its knowledge integration competency with case analysis.

For any edited book on new frontiers, the selection of contributors would be critical to its attraction and success. A number of respected scholars and renowned executives in the knowledge management field, especially from America, have contributed to the book. The contributions from both academics and practitioners should be particularly appreciated by readers. However, out of 12 chapters, apart from two from the UK and one from Denmark, the rest of the authors are mainly based in the USA. The heavily American-based contributions may be seen as a weakness in offering a comprehensive reflection of thoughts on future directions worldwide.

In a similar way to most edited books, the collection of chapters represents a mix of depth, length and style. Readers may find that some chapters are better argued and in more depth than others. Others may challenge the novelty, significance or the 'eligibility' as a new frontier in certain topics. It can also be argued that some important or emerging topics may have been left out, such as dealing with culture and trust, dealing with tacit knowledge, transnational knowledge transfer in the global economy, communities of practice, intelligent knowledge systems, etc. However, one of the purposes of the book, as the editor stressed in his opening page, is for 'interested readers to embrace or criticize, to build on or refute, and above all to share' the contributors' views. To this end, the editor's effort can be well justified. As it is not possible to include all new frontiers in one book, the reviewer acknowledges this limitation. The book serves as a call for attention to the continuous effort in seeking new frontiers in this evolving field.

Overall, the editor has done a good job in terms of quality, depth and range of the papers collected. The book makes a unique contribution to the knowledge management literature and is a valuable source of innovative ideas and rich insights on advancing the understanding and achievement in knowledge management. Most of the chapters are well argued and easy to follow, although some of them may be more intellectually demanding for readers to digest. The book would not be recommended as a textbook for students, but is a useful reading for both knowledge management academics and practitioners who would like to further their thoughts on new directions and understand the implications of the new developments. It will also be particularly beneficial to new knowledge management researchers who seek inspiration and thought-provoking debates in their projects and research. I find the book an inspiring, and enjoyable read and hope that KMRP readers will feel the same.

See: http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/journal/v5/n1/full/8500122a.html

Managing Knowledge Security: Book Cover and Inside Leafs

The Management Roundtable -- Demystifying the Link between Innovation and Business Value: A Process Framework

I will be delivering a talk on innovation for The Management Roundtable. This talk will draw on our ongoing work in the area of innovation. The talk will focus on the development of the innovation process, measuring the process, and linking the process to business value metrics.

For details, please see - http://www.roundtable.com/Event_Center/Audiocons/Desouza/Desouza0707.html

Two universal truths underpin most business operations: (1) unless businesses can demonstrate value to their stakeholders on a consistent basis they will lose customers and markets, get overrun by the competition, and eventually become extinct, and (2) to generate business value, an organization must constantly innovate, and do so in an effective and efficient manner.
Innovation is a crucial component of business strategy, but the process of innovation can be difficult to manage. To plan organizational initiatives or bolster innovation requires a firm grasp of the innovation process. Few organizations have transparently defined such a process.
In this presentation, Kevin will offer a process framework and propose mechanisms to measure the value of innovation. The innovation process will be broken down into the discrete stages of idea generation and mobilization, screening and advocacy, experimentation, commercialization, diffusion and implementation. For each stage, he will provide context, outputs and critical ingredients as well as mechanisms to measure performance. Kevin will finish by linking these measures to business value measures.

Specifically you will learn:

• the stages of innovation -- from creating ideas to commercialization -- and diffusing and implementing products and services
• how successful organizations conduct activities in each of the stages
• how to measure process performance and improve its maturity
• how to link the innovation process to business value measures

Dr. Kevin C. Desouza is on the faculty of the Information School at the University of Washington. He is also an Adjunct Assistant Professor in Electrical Engineering at the College of Engineering. He serves as the Director of the Institute for National Security Education and Research, an inter-disciplinary, university-wide initiative. He is also Director and founding faculty member of the Institute for Innovation in Information Management (I3M) and is an affiliate faculty member of the Center for American Politics and Public Policy, both housed at the University of Washington. His immediate past position was as the Director of the Institute for Engaged Business Research, a think-tank of the Engaged Enterprise, a strategy consulting firm with expertise in the areas of knowledge management, crisis management, strategic deployment of information systems, and government and competitive intelligence assignments.

Dr. Desouza has authored Managing Knowledge with Artificial Intelligence (Quorum Books, 2002), co-authored The Outsourcing Handbook (Kogan Page, 2006), Managing Information in Complex Organizations (M.E. Sharpe, 2005) and Engaged Knowledge Management (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005), and edited New Frontiers of Knowledge Management (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005) and Agile Information Systems (Butterworth Heinemann, 2006). His most recent book is Managing Knowledge Security (Kogan Page, 2007). In addition, he has published over 130 articles in prestigious practitioner and academic journals.

Dr. Desouza has advised, briefed, and/or consulted for major international corporations (e.g., Boeing, Microsoft, Accenture, the American Productivity Quality Center, etc.) and government organizations (e.g., the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the Department of State, the Department of Veterans Affairs, etc.) on strategic management issues ranging from management of information systems, to knowledge management, competitive intelligence, government intelligence operations, and crisis management.

Hidden in Plain Sight: Ideas for Innovation?

I have begun reading Hidden in Plain Sight: How to Find and Execute Your Company’s Next Big Growth Strategy (Harvard Business School Press, 2007) by Eric Joachimsthaler. Michelle Morgan (Publicist) at Harvard Business School Press sent me a copy of the book for review and comments. I will send in my thoughts about the book as I make my way through it.

IFIP 8.6: Organisational Dynamics of Technology-based Innovation: Diversifying the Research Agenda

I will heading to England for a few weeks starting on June 9 and returning on June 25.

I will serve as a faculty mentor for the IFIP 8.6 Doctoral Consortium (http://www.ifip86-2007.salford.ac.uk/) to be held in Manchester, UK. Bob Galliers (Bentley College) is the Doctoral Consortium Chair. Bob has done an excellent job in selecting an eclectic group of students who have diverse research interests and aspirations.

In addition, I look forward to meeting up with several of my European Colleagues during the month of June. I plan to spend a few days in Manchester, then head to Oxford, and finally spend a week in London before coming back to Seattle…

Securing Innovation - New Book - Managing Knowledge Security

How well do you protect your innovations? Most organizations lack good measures to develop protective measures to secure their innovations. As a result, these organizations fail to reap adequate rents from their investments. Before costs, and even normal profits, can be earned an organization may see its innovation being imitated by competitors through reverse engineering. Some organizations even face leaks of information when working on sensitive projects thereby alerting competitors of their strategic motives. How secure is your knowledge (and innovations)?

My new book, Managing Knowledge Security (Kogan Page, 2007), tackles this question from a pragmatic perspective. I have devised, participated in, and even managed, intelligence assignments for several private and public organizations. These assignments involved testing protective measures for securing knowledge, identifying leaks of information, gathering data on competitors, among other activities.

Orders are being taken on Amazon and other retail websites…Early orders receive a nice discount as well…

The Past 48 Hrs...

What have I been doing these days…Well, nothing major…Let me give you a run down of my last two days…

I was in Houston for APQC’s 12th Annual Knowledge Management Conference and Training: Knowledge Management and Innovation (www.apqc.org). On the evening of the 9th, I had dinner with Robert (Bob) H. Buckman [Retired Chairman of the Board, Bulab Holdings] and his daughter Katherine Buckman Gibson [Chairman of the Board, Bulab Holdings]. I have known Bob for about 2 years now. The two of us get excited about two topics– knowledge management and organizational innovation. This was my first meeting with Kathy. Kathy is a delightful person. She is guiding Buckman Labs into an exciting future. During dinner, we discussed a number of issues ranging from organizational innovation issues, to information disconnects and organizational fragmentation, cross-cultural issues, and the School of Information of the University of Washington.

[P.S. the Olivette restaurant at the Houstonian is wonderful…if you get a chance, go by and have a meal…delightful!]

After dinner ended, I met up with Roberto Evaristo, a long-time colleague, collaborator, and friend. Roberto is playing an active role in the KM Program Office of 3M. We indulged in a few choice liquids, and spent the time getting caught up on various happenings in our lives.

May 10: I got on a conference call at 6 AM, and barely had chance to check my emails. Then, it was breakfast with Roberto. During breakfast we had a chance to discuss business, and get ready for our talk. After breakfast, we headed to the conference. I got a chance to catch up with several colleagues (there are too many to name but here are a few…Gerry Swift, Darcy Lemons, Carla O’Dell, Marisa Brown, Louis Archuleta, Ann Majchrzak…).

I then attended a talk given by Jimmy Wales, founder, Wikipedia.org, and chairman, Wikia.com. Jimmy talk was engaging, thoughtful, and creative. The talk focused on the development of Wikipedia, its current state, the future plans. I learnt a lot from the talk. One of the things that I will use in my classes is the concept of designing technology by thinking about how one would design a restaurant. Jimmy went on to talk about how students are using Wikipedia for their term papers. To all my student readers: do not use Wikipedia as a reference, just like you would not use Encyclopedia Britannica. Wikipedia should be used to help you gain deeper knowledge about a topic and also to identify primary and secondary sources for further consultation.

The next item on the agenda - Organizational Innovation Processes: The case of 3M, a presentation by Kevin C. Desouza and J Roberto Evaristo. I opened the presentation by setting the stage for the innovation process framework. Roberto then examined each stage of the process and cited practices in place at 3M for conducting activities in each stage. An engaging Q&A session followed (we ran over our allotted time!).

Then, my taxi was waiting, and I headed back to the Airport to fly back to Seattle…

All in all, a fairly calm and uneventful two days…

P.S. I am writing this Blog entry while on my flight back to Seattle…A good way to spend time…currently we are at 30,000 feet and beginning our descent into SEATAC…

Understanding the Complexities of Innovative Technology Project Failure

Nina Yuttapongsontorn (a graduate student at the Information School, UW) and I have completed a case study paper - Understanding the Complexities of Innovative Technology Project Failure: The Case of the Seattle Popular Monorail Authority.

Abstract

The proposed Seattle Popular Monorail was one of the largest public works projects ever proposed in the city of Seattle. Three years after this proposal, the Seattle Monorail Project was shut down by voters. This paper studies the history of the plan, the challenges the plan’s proponents were confronted with, criticisms and reactions, and reasons for the plan’s failure. It is interesting to note that the City of Seattle has had experience in monorail projects. Seattle’s original monorail was one of the world’s first modern monorails, and it was the first full-scale monorail system in the US. It was built in 1962 for the Seattle Century 21 World’s Fair and cost $3.5 million. The 1.2-mile-long monorail was built in only 10 months. During the six months of the fair, the trains carried more than eight million guests and easily earned back its initial capital construction costs in just five months. Today, the trains carry more than 2.5 million riders each year, and it still operates at a profit after forty years of operation. Yet the City of Seattle could not repeat this success with the Seattle Popular Monorail.

ICTs and Innovation - Paper Accepted for Research-Technology Management

Our paper, "Opening up Innovation through Information-Communication Technologies," has been accepted for publication in Research-Technology Management. The authors of the paper are: Yukika Awazu, Bentley College, USA; Peter Baloh, University of Ljubljana, SLOVENIA; Kevin C. Desouza, University of Washington, USA; Christoph H. Wecht, BGW Management Advisory Group, SWITZERLAND; Jeffrey Kim, University of Washington, USA; Sanjeev Jha, University of Illinois at Chicago, USA.

Abstract:
Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) are no longer just for internal use. Rather, in the era of open and distributed innovation ICTs must be leveraged by businesses and organizations to reach, record and review ideas from internal and external sources ranging from vendors, suppliers, customers and employees. Interacting with all stakeholders improves the quality and consistency of ideas. ICTs enable this process at all levels through inclusion and interaction. This paper explores specific ways that ICTs can be used to enable the entire innovation process: from idea generation and development, to experimenting and testing, and finally, to commercialization of ideas.

In particular, ICTs enable management of sources of ideas, documentation of idea histories, distribution and sharing of ideas, market targeting and organic idea development. Successful practitioner examples and specific technologies are discussed in context to outline opportunities and trends in the new era of open, distributed, ICT-enabled innovation. The emerging trend of distributed and open innovation illustrates that customers and users are no longer passively waiting for products. Widely connected, interactive and collaborative practice of innovation will provide a competitive edge to the corporations that carefully select and deploy ICT strategies.

About Research-Technology Management (R-TM)

R-TM is published by the Industrial Research Institute. The Industrial Research Institute (IRI) is the foremost business association of leaders in research and development (R&D) working together to enhance the effectiveness of technological innovation in industry. Founded in 1938 through the National Research Council, IRI comprises senior executives from a diverse range of industries whose Member Companies are investing over $100 billion annually in R&D worldwide. IRI is the leading cross-industry organization providing the R&D community with insights, solutions and best practices in innovation management developed through collaborative knowledge creation.

Research-Technology Management is the award-winning, bi-monthly journal of the Industrial Research Institute, published since 1958. It contains peer-reviewed articles covering the entire spectrum of technological innovation, from research and development through product development to marketing. RTM is a leading source of knowledge and best practices on innovation management for leaders of research, development, and engineering worldwide.

Real Options Approach to Innovation Management - Part I

Most strategic decisions require significant investments and therefore it is critical that organizations manage these investments carefully for continued growth and survival of firms. Pursuing innovations are strategic decisions too, especially strategic innovations, which are product or process innovations with unproven business models that have potential to change the rules of the existing business. What separate strategic innovations from regular product or process improvements is the degree of expense of a single experiment, the duration of each experiment, and the ambiguity of results. Strategic innovations require huge investments, over a long period of time, and with uncertain financial rewards. The rewards, however, of successful strategic innovations can be manifold: high growth in revenue and profitability, market dominance, and renewed faith of investors and analysts. A few of the celebrated examples of strategic innovations are: online book retailing by Amazon, direct selling by Dell, introduction of mini-mills by Nucor, low cost no-frills airline service by Rynair.

Strategic investment decisions, like strategic innovation, have three important characteristics. First, the investments made are either partially or fully sunk and cannot be recovered, in other words investments are irreversible. Second, returns on these investments are uncertain or the future benefits from investments are uncertain. Third, organizations have some flexibility with respect to the timing of the investment, or timing of different phases of investments. A good example of strategic innovation, showcasing the above three characteristics, can be of pharmaceutical companies entering into alliances with biotechnology companies and universities. Pharmaceutical companies invest into research projects led by biotechnology companies or universities and these investments are irreversible and the outcomes of most of these projects are uncertain. The development phase of these projects run up to a decade before commercialization can begin. Therefore, most of the alliance contracts have provision of payments over a period of time depending upon the successful progress of the project. If the projects do not show promise of product development and commercialization, the contracts have provision of stopping future investments. This flexibility in investment decisions limits exposure to risks while providing opportunity to invest further based on future assessments. These characteristics of strategic investment decisions make them especially relevant to be analyzed through real options approach.

Real option approach to investment decisions can be discovered in various settings and we discuss two of them here to showcase its applicability to wide range of situations. The two examples which employ real options thinking are hiring of professors and the process of awarding grants by National Science Foundation (NSF). There seems to be a real options thinking in the way academia generates knowledge by hiring professors. Most professors come in with a limited contract and then they need to show promise in the development of new ideas and knowledge. If they are successful the contract options are renewed (i.e. most untenured professors start out with a 3 year contract and then it is extended for another 3 years). Upon successful demonstration of innovative capabilities and output – tenure is given. The other interesting example of real option thinking is the process of awarding grants by NSF. NSF gives out grants, for exploratory projects, then they may choose to continue their investment if initial results are found to be acceptable or else stop further investments if the project does not show promise. This restricts wastage of resources to initial funding and provides opportunity to work with applicants incase the projects become worthwhile.

[Posted by: Sanjeev Jha]

Reflections from the I3M Meeting

I have now had three days to reflect on the I3M symposium. The symposium was exciting and stimulating. I gained a lot from the informal discussions with an eclectic group of executives. There were executives who asked me pointed questions which helped me refine my thinking. Some others asked me to share more detailed accounts of case findings. Yet, others asked if they could help out in future research. What was most interesting is the fact that no two executives asked me the same question. This is probably the first time this has ever happened. Each executive shared questions from their vantage point, and the audience was truly diverse. Here are a few key themes that kept emerging from various discussions:

1. Balancing risks and rewards in innovation – how should organizations manage a portfolio of ideas so as to gain maximum returns. Moreover, how should an organization fund innovative ideas? The possibility of using real-options as a framework was brought up several times.

2. Measuring the innovation process – how do we measure the performance of the innovation process, do we measure the process or the output, do we use qualitative or quantitative methods, do we measure using the unit of analysis of a firm, unit, or group…the answer, we use a combination of metrics and personalize metrics for different problems

3. The difference between large (public) and small (private) firms in terms of their innovation capabilities…are there differences, are there differences in the diversity of ideas they pursue, etc

4. The role of culture in innovation…my thoughts on this was that culture is determined by innovation capacities and not the other way. Too often, we use (organizational) culture too loosely and inappropriately. Yes, having the right culture is important, but creating the culture for innovation is also important.

5. How does legal oversight and regulations impact innovation…A lively discussion on this topic took place…my answer, laws are meant to be broken and they are always a step behind…being innovative helps you be ahead of the laws and find creative, and legal, ways to get your work done…Not the most politically correct response, but my opinion…

Overall, exciting day and I thank all those who attended…it was good fun…Cheers!

More Pictures from I3M Symposium

I3M Meeting: A Smashing Success…

We had an exciting day yesterday…By all accounts, the I3M Symposium was a success. The morning started with a keynote presentation by Phil Fawcett of Microsoft Research. This was followed by our research presentation – Demystifying the Link between Business Value and Innovation. This was followed by a panel discussion exploring the various issues surrounding innovation and business value. The evening concluded with presentations on potential research projects, and a wine and o' devours reception. A more detailed note on the symposium will be posted soon…

Peter Baloh at the UW

My doctoral student, Peter Baloh (http://www.baloh.net/), from the University of Ljubljana (Slovenia) is in Seattle. He is here to attend the I3M (Institute for Innovation in Information Management) Spring Symposium. Peter has been working with me on issues of strategic innovation and knowledge management. Peter was a lead contributor one two i4i papers. The first paper examined the role of ICTs (Information and Communication Technologies) in innovation. The second paper examined strategies used by organizations to innovate with their business partners. In addition, Peter contributed to our papers on customer innovation and communication strategies for innovation.
Peter took a few pictures as I was giving him the tour of the UW.

36 hrs...The Final Countdown

The I3M meeting is just around the corner…People are flying in, phones have started to ring, the editing and final touches are coming along nicely, and the wine is flowing…Looking forward to seeing all of you on Monday morning…

Cited Again...BusinessInnovationInsider.com

We have been cited again…See BusinessInnovationInsider.com (http://www.businessinnovationinsider.com/2007/01/understanding_hewlettpackards.php). BusinessInnovationInsider.com has several interesting posts about innovation practices in leading organizations.

Communicating the Business Value of Innovation

Innovation affects all aspects of a business, from operational procedures to strategic goals. Because of the widespread, often dispersed nature of innovation projects, it can be quite difficult to establish methods of communicating the business value of successful innovation projects. Innovation projects may have delayed costs or benefits, sometimes have unexpected effects on other aspects of the business and can change the culture or use of resources at an organization in ways difficult to measure and difficult to communicate. While working on an innovation project, new knowledge may be discovered that is not immediately usable to the project but which can lead to future efforts and open up new markets. For instance, Pasteur was working on a solution to prevent beer from becoming stale when he discovered the principles underlying fermentation, which led to understanding of microbiology and eventually antibiotics, one of his major contributions to science. Innovation projects can also lead to a culture of energy and high enthusiasm which can stir creativity and increase the likelihood of the firm to hire new talented people -- the most common example of this is the environment at Google.

In addition, strict return on investment (or ROI) measures are notoriously bad at uncovering the true business value (or BV) of innovation. ROI evaluates resources allocated to a project and the return upon those resources, but innovation rarely has easily identifiable returns. Innovation often affects many aspects of a business and can underlie perceptual shifts as well as altering levels of efficiency and sometimes competitive advantages. For these reasons, accurately measuring the resources saved, gained or developed because of innovation projects is nearly impossible. In addition, innovation projects involve a degree of uncertainty and adaptation. Discussions of innovative projects usually revolve around promises, risks and opportunities, not around concrete examples or assurances. For this reason, communication about innovative projects needs to be carefully thought out to encourage innovation while hanging onto a healthy dose of skepticism and evaluation.

We will be presenting our findings from the BVI research project at the I3M symposium on April 16 at the University of Washington. To learn more about how to successfully communicate the business value of innovation, please stay tuned for our research paper and we also look forward to seeing you at our symposium [see http://projects.ischool.washington.edu/i3m/].

Infosys cites Ideas4Innovation work

Infosys Technologies (the Technology and Outsourcing Giant) maintains a series of blogs. These blogs talk about various issues related to IT, outsourcing, and innovation. One of their blogs, Managing Offshore IT (http://infosysblogs.com/managing-offshore-it) cited our work on Outsourcing Innovation. The post More Companies Outsourcing Innovation: But what does it mean to you? (http://infosysblogs.com/managing-offshore-it/2007/04/more_companies_outsourcing_inn.html#more), discusses the changing nature of outsourcing innovation. We are working on a project called Managing Risks for Rewards: The Case of Outsourcing Innovation (we call it IRO). Stay tuned for more details…

APQC Best Practice Partners: Successfully Embedding Innovation

Executives from CSC Corporation...	Executives from Ethicon Endo-Surgery (a Johnson & Johnson Company)...
Executive from Boston Scientific...	Executives from Air Products and Chemicals, Inc...

Research Featured in Sloan Management Review

The core paper of our first research project, Leveraging Ideas for Organizational Innovation, is featured in the current issue of Sloan Management Review.

Mariello, A. “The Five Stages of Successful Innovation,” Sloan Management Review, 48 (3), 2007, 8-9.

See http://sloanreview.mit.edu/smr/issue/2007/spring/06/