Open Innovation Approaches at Different Stages of the Innovation Process. Suitability for New Product Development Processes

Master's Thesis from the year 2019 in the subject Business economics - Business Management, Corporate Governance, grade: 1,3, RWTH Aachen University, language: English, abstract: The objective of this thesis is to offer a combined research-based approach for improving new product development processes by means of exchanging proficiencies with externals. More accurately, a critical assessment of the suitability of selected open innovation methodologies at different stages of the innovation process enhances the research focus of this thesis.

In the wake of globalization and digitization trends, entire industrial dynamics have transformed. Particularly product innovation management has significantly matured over the past decades and therefore, gained special attention. Manufacturers are nowadays able to serve regional as well as international markets, while taking advantage of distributed resources and expertise.

On the downside, firms are steadily confronted by two predominant challenges: First, lead times for launching new products are dramatically decreasing due to shortened product life cycles. Hence, development projects need to be well-structured and more time-efficient. Secondly, sophisticated knowledge and expertise evolve more rapidly. Consequently, industrials become more specialized in subfields, which forces manufacturers to engage with others to carry out development projects.

In order to stay competitive in international and fast changing markets, organizations are required to innovate on a regular basis. Though, innovation development has become increasingly challenging and frustrating. New products are supposed to generate higher sales, while revenue margins are decreasing at the same time. Even successful corporations cannot keep up with regularly launching highly performing innovations.

Therefore, many manufacturers rather focus on incremental product improvements instead of developing radical innovations. Particularly as a company grows, the obstacles of launching successful new products become even more difficult to overcome. Simultaneously balancing the needs of new and existing customers as well as discovering new business lines, while pursuing extant business models portray omnipresent struggles of leading firms.