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Innovation Project Management in Theory

From a theoretical point of view, innovation project management is a research topic dealing with innovation (section 1.1) and referring to three main research fields, i.e. innovation management, entrepreneurship and project management. As these research fields emerged and expanded separately, they have to be combined to understand the reality of innovation project management practices. This is probably why scholars are beginning to bring them closer in pairs: project management and entrepreneurship, project management and innovation management, innovation management and entrepreneurship. The three research streams will be described in sections 1.2, 1.3 and 1.4, respectively. In section 1.5, I will propose a definition of innovation project management, based on both my own research experience and an academic literature review.

1.1. Defining the word "innovation"

What does innovation mean? What types of innovation are there? How can we evaluate the newness of an innovation? What is an innovation process?

1.1.1. A polysemous word

Innovation is a polysemous word: there are a lot of academic definitions which vary according to the context (firm, society and individual, for instance) in which they are used, and the theoretical background of the scholars defining them. These definitions can be classified in three groups [DAL 73, BAR 80]. The first group views innovation as a new object, the second group focuses on the adoptive process by users of a new object, and the third on the creative process aiming at creating a new object.

• - The first group of definitions calls innovation the new object. "New" means that the thing did not exist before having been developed. What does matter is the newness.
• - The second group of definitions deals with the new object's adoptive process, i.e. the way the new object becomes an integral part of the culture and the behavior of individuals or groups. As innovation can create breakthroughs in habits, practices and lifestyles, it is difficult for people and society to easily accept it.
• - The third group of definitions focuses on the creative process, aiming to combine two or several elements and concepts, so that a new configuration might emerge and be implemented. This process covers successive tasks: ideation, new configuration development and implementation. The innovation's purpose is to provide an economic and societal value.

Let us take the example of the smart card. A smart card is an innovation, because it is a new object (it did not exist before). By avoiding the need for paying with cash, the credit card, a specific type of smart card, has provided an economical value for banks, firms and individuals. The smart card has also provided a societal value by increasing the protection of identity and financial transactions. However, it took a long time before the smart card became an integral part of habits and culture.

Innovation must be distinguished with invention and discovery:

• - Invention is the result of an abstract reasoning [RIG 73]. It becomes an innovation only if it is turned into a concrete solution that creates an economic and societal value. The microchip is the invention which has led to a high number of various applications of smart cards.
• - Discovery is an existing fact, which was present before having been highlighted or observed. For instance, the discovery of the nanostructure and then the abstract reasoning of researchers (invention) made it possible to develop nanotechnologies, and hence new materials (innovations) which have a higher technical performance, such as drying concretes more quickly.

A lot of French words ending with "ation" designate both a process, i.e. a set of interrelated tasks and activities, and the result (output) of this process. Adopting this semantic point of view, I suggest combining the three groups of meaning because, in practice, innovation project management deals with innovating (the innovation process), implementing a new object (innovation as a result) and must take into account the adoption of this new object by its users.

1.1.2. The different types of innovation

The economist Joseph Schumpeter distinguished five cases of innovation [SCH 35]:

• - new product;
• - new method of production;
• - the opening of a new market;
• - the conquest of a new source of supply of raw materials or half-manufactured goods;
• - the implementation of better organization of any industry.

During the 20th Century, innovation was often limited to the first two cases: product (covering goods and services) and industrial process (i.e. method of production). It might be because, during the first part of the 20th Century, innovating firms were essentially manufacturing firms. They managed projects which aimed to develop new or improved goods (called new product development projects) and projects which aimed to develop new industrial processes (called new process development projects). At the end of the 20th Century, there was an increasing need for new services in a lot of sectors such as tourism, banking and insurance. Firms had to propose new or significantly improved offers of services and goods, while improving their processes in order to reduce their costs.

Table 1.1. Illustration for each type of innovation

Type of innovation Example Good A hybrid car, the famous American soft drink Coca-Cola when it was commercialized, wind turbines Service Home meal delivery service Industrial process Beer dealcoholization process, the float glass process (a revolutionary method of flat glass production avoiding the costly need to grind and polish plate glass to make it clear) Method Gantt diagram, PERT methods, frugal innovation, agile methods Way of doing something (know-how) Cutting of the weapon from flint Concept Marketing concept Technological concept Design concept (specific visual or verbal scheme message) Concept car Silver economy Multi-touch "Sophisticated elegance" Business model A free of charge service funded by advertisements, such as Google Organizational mechanism or entity Co-working spaces Way of using or living Mobile phone compared to desk phone Technology Virtual reality Standard Laser disk technology during the end of 20th Century Accounting standard Law A new labor law

Today, innovation no longer only deals with products (goods and services) and processes but with every kind of matter (see Table 1.1.). Indeed, due to diffusion of open innovation [CHE 03], a lot of firms sell or license patents, technologies, and other intermediary outputs of the innovation process. As these intermediate outputs provide an economic (and sometimes societal) value, they can be viewed as innovations.

Most innovations combine different kinds of matter. An innovation can be very complex (e.g. smartphones compared to previous mobile phones).

1.1.3. The different perceptions of newness

The European Standard for Innovation Management1 views innovation as a new object or a significantly improved one. What is the difference between "new" and "significantly improved"?

I think that newness is a matter of point of view. It depends on a reference point: the spatial context, the time context, the innovation user's perception and the innovating organization's perception (Table 1.2).

• - An innovation can be new because it has been introduced for the first time in another spatial context than the one it existed in.
• - An innovation might have existed, disappeared and been reintroduced in a new time context.
• - The innovation users perceive it as new.
• - An innovation is not new according to the time and spatial context but it is for the firm having developing it. "As long as the idea is perceived as new to the people involved, it is an 'innovation,' even though it may appear to others to be an 'imitation' of something that exists elsewhere" [VAN 86].
• - An innovation can be new because it has not existed before and elsewhere (all the previous cases simultaneously).

Table 1.2. Illustrations for each type of newness

Type of newness Examples New according to the spatial context of diffusion Potato cultivation when the French agronomist Antoine-Augustin Parmentier decided to introduce it to France in the 18th Century. New according to the time context of diffusion "Vintage" clothes
The electric car: electric cars were developed at the same time as combustion engine-based cars (19th Century). It reappeared several times in the 20th Century but...