Handling Uncertainty in Innovation Management – an empirical analysis of innovative organizations

Abstract

Innovation Management is marked by a high degree of uncertainty, which represents a major challenge for organizations. In the course of the current research paper, a qualitative study was conducted to gain an overview of the different activities conducted and the methods used in order to deal with uncertainty along the particular phases of the innovation process. The main findings of this paper represent a summary of best practices in innovative organizations regarding the application of appropriate tools, methods and techniques to systematically reduce uncertainty. The results indicate that mainly long-proven and established methods like the lead user approach, competition analysis are used, e.g. product roadmaps or portfolios were more rarely mentioned. The paper concludes with a discussion of theoretical and practical implications of our study.