The successful management of ideas has become a strategic organizational capability and a source of competitive advantage. Many companies have set up idea management programs and innovation contests to facilitate the generation, development, and implementation of new products, services, processes, and business model ideas. However, out of a pool of submitted ideas, typically only a few will be adopted and brought successfully to the market. How can firms effectively collect ideas and motivate people to continuously generate creative ideas, how can they identify and select the best ideas, and how can they channel these ideas into successful innovations?
The internal political arena of companies is where innovation often takes place. In such a noisy arena, the project leaders who shout loudest get first access to funding. We study ways for project leaders to best communicate their ideas and vision for their innovation, so their ideas can win attention and funding.
Ecosystems are networks of interdependent firms and institutions that collaborate, compete, and co-evolve within shared frameworks. Standardization defines the "rules of the game" in these ecosystems by setting common technologies, protocols, and norms that coordinate interactions across participants. This research area explores how standardization shapes innovation ecosystems and how ecosystem dynamics, in turn, drive the emergence of dominant standards.
Innovation has become imperative for organizations and societies at large. The increasing pace of technological and market change forces organizations to collaborate to share risks and resources. In addition, the grand challenges of our time require solutions that are well beyond the limits of a single organization. But interorganizational collaboration has its own disadvantages such as cooperation and coordination problems. What are the conditions for interorganizational collaboration to succeed?
More and more organizations are diversifying their employee base to stimulate innovation. Diverse groups have members with different, unique knowledge, and by combining and integrating these different perspectives, diverse groups have the potential to come up with more creative and innovative ideas. However, diverse teams may be less effective at implementing these ideas due to biases against their ideas, coordination problems, and not having the right networks. How can leaders and organizations best manage diverse teams such that they can be optimally creative and innovative?
Recent research has shown that innovation does not "happen" in isolation; it occurs within a relational context in which single individuals and firms collaborate and compete with other actors in broader networks of social interactions. Despite this earlier research, important questions still have to be explored: To what extent do individual people with their idiosyncrasies (demographic features, psychology, and cognition) contribute to construct and shape innovation through the intra-organizational social networks in which they are embedded? What is the role of subunit, firm or industry-level characteristics in affecting the formation and the functioning of innovation networks?
Generative AI (GenAI) is driving innovation, transforming how organizations create value and adapt to change. Recent research examines how generative AI technologies reshape work practices. GenAI is no longer confined to automating routine tasks but increasingly produces outputs (e.g., texts, images, code) that were once the exclusive domain of human expertise. Despite growing awareness of these shifts, important questions remain open. What new relations and work emerge through the deployment of GenAI systems? How can we design GenAI systems in ways that align with the social and organizational environments in which they operate?
Innovation and creativity succeed not only because new ideas are generated, but because they are recognized and valued by others. This research theme examines how innovation is socially constructed, evaluated, and valued across scientific, technological, and creative domains. Potential PhD projects may investigate how human and algorithmic actors interact in generating and assessing innovations, and how evolving systems of evaluation influence recognition, diffusion, and legitimacy. The focus is on advancing theory through conceptual reasoning, analytical approaches, and engagement with novel forms of data.
Innovation strategy is deeply embedded in social dynamics that shape how value is created and captured. Social dynamics such as organizational identity, user behavior and collaboration play a critical role in understanding how innovations emerge. Especially in times of new technological developments we tend to overlook the people that are required to implement and use the new technologies that eventually lead to innovations. This approach aims to advance innovation strategy research by analyzing people and their interactions in-depth.
Organisations and businesses crave leaders who can generate innovative ideas and implement them. In this programme, you will learn how to develop an innovation strategy, create an innovation culture, foster creative ideas, and lead innovation projects. You will explore scientific theories and case studies, and address business challenges so you can apply your learning to real business situations. You will join other students with diverse backgrounds as you learn management skills for leading innovation activities.
In a new massive open online course (MOOC) by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), business executives, entrepreneurs and students will be taken on a journey through innovation management concepts, theories of idea generation, selection, strategy formulation and implementation. During the free, nine-week online course, participants will also learn tricks and tools they can use to implement innovation projects.
RSM's Innovation Management programme comprises eight evening sessions which are augmented by some guided preparation work. During each classroom session, our faculty members will introduce you to an aspect of innovation management. We will provide recommended reading materials, online articles, and business study cases that will help you to prepare for the classroom sessions. We will also ask you to prepare descriptions of relevant situations from your own organisations in advance of the classroom sessions.
Three days
In a new massive open online course (MOOC) by Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University (RSM), business executives, entrepreneurs and students will be taken on a journey through innovation management concepts, theories of idea generation, selection, strategy formulation and implementation. During the free, nine-week online course, participants will also learn tricks and tools they can use to implement innovation projects.
