Title: At the front end of the R&D/Innovation process: idea development and entrepreneurship

Authors: Albert H. Rubenstein

Addresses: Walter P Murphy Professor of Industrial Engineering and Management Sciences, Northwestern University, Technological Institute, 2145 Sheridan Road, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3119, USA

Abstract: This paper deals with the |front end| of the R&D/innovation process – the generation and communication of |ideas|. It discusses the following issues: the various players in the idea stage; the decision imperatives and constraints under which they operate; the potential for increased cooperation in idea generation; and the increasing trend for firms to look outside the firm for ideas and technology. Factors which are having significant impacts on the idea generation process in the firm include: outsourcing, corporate restructuring, letting competitors take the innovation lead, making the firm |lean and mean| and decentralization into even smaller and more narrowly-focused business units which cannot or will not support the kind of research that generates or develops more radical ideas for new products, processes and services.

Keywords: ideas generation; ideas flow; innovation; R&D; research and development; marketing; new products; new processes; new services; outsourcing; corporate restructuring; competitors; decentralisation.

DOI: 10.1504/IJTM.1994.025595

International Journal of Technology Management, 1994 Vol.9 No.5/6/7, pp.652 - 677

Published online: 23 May 2009 *

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