Title: Selection patterns in front-end decision making - determining the probability of idea progress within the internal innovation process

Authors: Christos Lecou; Nathalie Sick; Jens Leker

Addresses: Institute of Business Administration at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Muenster, Leonardo-Campus 1, 48149 Muenster, Germany ' Institute of Business Administration at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Muenster, Leonardo-Campus 1, 48149 Muenster, Germany ' Institute of Business Administration at the Department of Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Muenster, Leonardo-Campus 1, 48149 Muenster, Germany

Abstract: Front-end decision making is a vastly challenging task due to the typically high number of alternatives being evaluated. These alternatives provide little information and high levels of uncertainty, resulting in a blur of possible decision criteria. This paper is dedicated to the identification of possible selection strategies under these circumstances. With formal given key figures as well as with observable informal key figures which potentially affect decision making, we uncover present decision patterns. Based on the documentation of evaluations for 53 ideas and the observation of managerial idea selection in the front-end framework of a chemical company, we present how this analysis can be conducted in practice. Our results show that the fuzziness of the front end of innovation is not always sufficiently included in the decision-making process.

Keywords: innovation front end; decision making; selection patterns; idea progress probability; idea evaluation; internal innovation; internal marketing; chemical industry; idea rating; logistic regression; decision criteria; decision patterns.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTMKT.2014.060074

International Journal of Technology Marketing, 2014 Vol.9 No.2, pp.101 - 124

Received: 28 Jul 2012
Accepted: 12 Mar 2013
Published online: 30 May 2014 *

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