Case Studies in Innovation Research

ompanies indicate the biggest added value of the platform created is that:

· an in-depth analysis is made of their company

· students in a 20-week period can work fulltime with them in defining a strategy for the company

· a network is created with other companies and thus opportunities for partnerships emerge and are created and come to life.

· knowledge-sharing is stimulated and knowledge is gained through the network meetings

· issues are addressed in the network meetings for which they in their day-to-day business have not time to think about nor reflect on

· new approaches can be tried out and best-practices can be developed from which other companies can benefit

One of the objectives of the innovation program described here is to create an architecture in which students lecturers and companies can share knowledge, learn and work towards specified goals.

they have acquired during their study and develop an entrepreneurial and innovative behaviour.

On the one hand the objective is to create an architecture in which students, lecturers and companies can share knowledge, learn and work towards specified goals.

· On the other hand the objective of the program is to contribute to the innovative power of participating sme’s and development of problem-solving skills.

· And last but not least the program aims to contribute to the professionalization of both students and lecturers, i.e. teach them research skills, develop a reflective attitude towards the knowledge

Technology Innovation – is defined to be a new technology that provides an improvement over one or more existing technologies. Examples of improvements could be either reduced cost or increased functionality. Technology innovations will be a means for creating new value for customers.

is defined to be a product, solution, application, platform, service or any other process which meets either the explicit or the implicit demands of the customers in a given market. Business innovations are often built using technology innovations. Some business innovations use technology innovations. Other business innovations are built on existing or mature technologies to address a new market opportunity.

In responding to environment and market changes, new product development projects become the focus of innovation and core competencies renew (Leonard-Barton, 1992). In this case of survival in the highly competitive and uncertain marketplace, managing each project by integrating competencies efficiently and effectively, as well as the space for continuous innovation in the future provides a competitive advantage. A set of project management skills of designers as process leaders are competencies which combine design, resource-based decision making, and commercialisation strategy decision. Designers are expected to undertake multiple activities to have better interactive and communication skills achieve better technological and commercial integration.

6.2.2 Commercial competencies

Apart from design activities, designers have full autonomy and undertake multiple roles in the NPD process. Business and marketing knowledge for strategic decision making are also required. Non-design knowledge like fashion awareness as well as fashion research and forecasting play important roles in the early stage of the NPD process. Specifically, fashion designers are expected to understand the market such as consumer preferences and sales statistics in the previous seasons (Jackson, 2007). Transferring customer knowledge into new product design is another issue to produce market-oriented fashion collections. As designer fashion industry is described as a market-driving business environment, commercial competencies to drive the market are crucial to business survival.

Creativity is the core competence in design. Commercialisation is the way of enticing customers’ desires. In this case, innovation in the designer fashion industry can be in the form that the designer collection is of creativity and allure at the same time. As earlier mentioned, fashion trends have been well-designed by designers before entering the market.

A growingly competitive environment drives firms to place more emphasis on creativity and innovation as the core value of the business (Perks et al., 2005; Von Stamm, 2003). Innovation can be viewed as creativity plus commercialisation (Von Stamm, 2003). In addition, it is about knowledge which means creating new competencies and refining existing capabilities through combining different knowledge set (Tidd et al., 2003). The knowledge is generated from the experience of the previous projects and new inspiration from external stimuli.