BA 580 Online
Strategic Innovation
Overview
This course explores innovation in the context of strategic management.
Course Outline
No text is required. All articles and cases needed for the course are listed below. You can access the PDF articles and cases on the Blackboard website.
Topic 1: Introduction to Strategic Innovation
The Eureka Myth. June 2005. Harold Evans. Harvard Business Review.Innovation: The Classic Traps. November 2006. Rosabeth Moss Kanter. Harvard Business Review.
Topic 2: Opportunity Recognition
The 12 Different Ways for Companies to Innovate. Spring 2006. Mohanbir Sawhney, Robert C. Wolcott & Inigo Arroniz. MIT Sloan Management Review.Strategy as Active Waiting. September 2005. Donald Sull. Harvard Business Review.
Break Free from the Product Life Cycle. May 2005. Youngme Moon. Harvard Business Review.
Mapping Your Innovation Strategy. May 2006. Scott D. Anthony, Matt Eyring & Lib Gibson. Harvard Business Review.
Topic 3: Avoiding Competition and Commoditization
Team 1 Case ScenarioClass—Or Mass? April 2005. Idalene F. Kesner & Rockney Walters. Harvard Business Review.
Blue Ocean Strategy: From Theory to Practice. Spring 2005. W. Chan Kim & Renée Mauborgne. California Management Review.
The Myth of Commoditization. Winter 2007. Michael Schrage. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Topic 4: Market Positioning
Team 2 Case ScenarioHolding Fast. June 2005. John T. Gourville. Harvard Business Review.
Finding the Right Job for Your Product. Spring 2007. Clayton M. Christensen, Scott D. Anthony, Gerald Berstell & Denise Nitterhouse. MIT Sloan Management Review.
The Half-Truth of First-Mover Advantage. April 2005. Fernando Suarez & Gianvito Lanzolla. Harvard Business Review.
Overcoming Consumer Resistance to Innovation. Summer 2007. Rosanna Garcia, Fleura Bardhi & Collette Friedrich. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Topic 5: Innovation in Emerging Markets
Team 3 Case ScenarioFeed R&D—Or Farm it Out? July-August 2005. Nitin Nohria. Harvard Business Review.
Strategies that Fit Emerging Markets. June 2005. Tarun Khanna, Krishna G. Palepu & Jayant Sinha. Harvard Business Review.
Disruptive Innovation for Social Change. December 2006. Clayton M. Christensen, Heiner Baumann, Rudy Ruggles & Thomas M. Sadtler. Harvard Business Review.
Creating Sustainable Local Enterprise Networks. Fall 2005. David Wheeler, Kevin McKague, Jane Thomson, Rachel Davies, Jacqueline Medalye & Marina Prada. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Topic 6: Corporate Venturing
Team 4 Case ScenarioGood Money after Bad? March 2007. John W. Mullins. Harvard Business Review.
Managing Internal Corporate Venturing Cycles. Summer 2005. Robert A. Burgelman & Liisa Välikangas. MIT Sloan Management Review.
The Value Captor's Process: Getting the Most out of Your New Business Ventures. May 2007. Rita Gunther McGrath & Thomas Keil. Harvard Business Review.
Meeting the Challenge of Corporate Entrepreneurship. October 2006. David A. Garvin & Lynne C. Levesque. Harvard Business Review.
Topic 7: Focusing Innovation through Internal and External Boundaries
Students working toward an A or B present their strategic innovation concepts maps on Blackboard during this session. Concept map papers are due at the beginning of session.
Team 5 Case Scenario
Take the Money—Or Run? November 2004. John W. Mullins. Harvard Business Review.
Boundary-Setting Strategies for Escaping Innovation Traps. Spring 2005. Liisa Välikangas & Michael Gilbert. MIT Sloan Management Review.
Innovation vs. Complexity: What is Too Much of a Good Thing? November 2005. Mark Gottfredson & Keith Aspinall. Harvard Business Review.
Scanning the Periphery. November 2005. George S. Day & Paul J.H. Schoemaker. Harvard Business Review.
Topic 8: Innovation Proposal Presentation
No assigned readings. Teams present their innovation proposal on Blackboard during this session.Grading
Each grade level requires an increasing number of assignments as listed below. Please scroll down for details of each assignment.
Grade of C
• Participate in all Blackboard discussions.
• Facilitate a team case scenario.
• Develop and present a team innovation proposal.
• Satisfactorily complete all application question sets (due the last regularly scheduled day of class).
Grade of B
• Complete all “C” activities.
• Develop a strategic innovation concept map.
Grade of A
• Complete all “C” and “B” activities.
• Write a case analysis incorporating multiple strategic innovation concepts.
Participation in Blackboard Discussions
We'll discuss on Blackboard several articles related to strategic innovations. To prepare for the discussions, read the concepts in each article and think along the lines of the following questions:
• What are the main take-away points in each article?
• Would the concepts work at your firm? If not, how might you modify them to make them effective?
• Does the business cycle (economic expansion/contraction) moderate the effectiveness of the concepts?
• How might the concepts be applied in various global contexts such as developed, emerging, and third-world nations?
• In what ways are the concepts industry-specific? That is, would they be applicable in some industries but not in others?
• Might differing corporate cultures and organizational structures promote or inhibit implementation of the various concepts?
• How do the current sessions' articles fit in with articles discussed in previous sessions? Are there any contradictions among the various concepts?
There may be times when you are unable to participate in class topic discussions. Missing one topic discussion does not count against you, but incomplete topic discussions beyond the first absence must be made up by submitting a 2-page (single-spaced) summary of each article assigned for the session. All summaries are due the last day of class as noted in the WKU course schedule. Please note that you can't advance to a course grade of A or B without completing all C activities; even though you may perform the A or B activities, you must make up missed topic discussions with your summaries to be eligible for grades above C.
Team Case Scenario Facilitation
Each team will facilitate one case study discussion on Blackboard. Each case places a manager at the point of a decision regarding a strategic innovation. The general format for facilitation of your team case scenario should loosely follow this outline:
• Provide a situation overview (approximately 2-3 paragraphs on Blackboard).
• Briefly (one or two sentences) state the specific problem the decision makers face.
• Briefly outline possible decision alternatives (approximately 3-5 bullet points)
• Facilitate the class discussion focusing on the pros, cons, and contingencies of possible decision outcomes.
Team Innovation Proposal
Teams develop a product, service, or business model innovation proposal that does not currently exist in any market. Present the proposal to the class in any creative way you prefer (narrated PowerPoint, video, discussion board, PDF, etc.). The presentation should incorporate one or more of the course concepts in justifying the proposal. Proposals may include anything that doesn't currently exist in the market except incremental brand extensions (i.e., new features added to existing software that simply expand a firm's share of an existing market).
Concept Map
This is an individual, not a team, project. A concept map is a way to visually depict integration of multiple concepts/frameworks. Each student working toward a grade of B or higher should:
• Prepare and present a concept map showing the relationships among at least four article concepts from at least two different course topics.
• Relate the concept map in a one-page (single-spaced) paper to implementation of the concepts in the industry in which the student currently works (or would like to work in the future). This should be presented to the class on Blackboard using any creative means you prefer.
Case Analysis
This is an individual, not a team, project. Each student working toward a grade of A should write a 7 - 10 page (single-spaced) case analysis dealing with a strategic innovation problem currently facing an organization (other than organizations discussed in the assigned articles). Analyze the problem by using at least two of the concepts/frameworks in the assigned articles and discuss how the the organization could benefit from successful implementation of your chosen concepts/frameworks.
One way to approach this is by putting yourself in the place of a consultant. Assume that the organization has employed you to analyze its strategic innovation problem and suggest possible solutions.
You don't need to present these to the class but instead send them to me directly by email.