BEMM118 assignment 1 | Reflection on 100+ Years of Innovation Research

You will select one academic (NOT consultancy) paper within the field of  innovation management. You will then write a short report (1,000 words +/- 10%) on it which highlights the key ideas and draws out some key messages  about the theme for practising managers, reflecting on how the theme could be  managed effectively. Please pay particular attention to how the management of  

the theme is being changed by digital technology within organizations, and  across business ecosystems. 

You can select other academic papers if you wish. Look at Harvard Business  Review, MIT Sloan Management Review, California Management Review etc. 

You will select a paper which is: 

• A case study of an organization and its approach to managing innovation 

• A ‘tools’ paper, with a description of tools or methods to help think about and  manage innovation 

• An ‘ideas’ paper with some new perspective or way of thinking about the  innovation process 

To review the paper and draw out helpful lessons for others you might like to  think of the following questions. Don’t feel confined to these alone – the art of  critical literature review is to develop skills and questions of your own in  analysing and exploring: 

• What are the key points which the author is trying to make? Try and  summarize into a few ‘bullet points’ 

• What –if any – is the research base they are drawing on? Or is the article just  an opinion?  

• Is there an underlying theory, a model of how innovation takes place? 

• If it is an ‘ideas’ paper, what are the strengths of the argument – and where can  you see weaknesses? How might the ideas be developed further? How could  you test the ideas? 

• If it’s a case study, where do you see the strengths in the organization’s  approach to Innovation – and where are there gaps or weaknesses? If you were  advising the company about what to do next to build on its strengths and deal  with its weaknesses, what might you recommend?  

• If it’s a ‘tools’ paper, how practical is the approach being recommended?  Would it work for all organizations? How might you need to adapt or develop  the tool to make it more flexible or useful? 

• What are the key messages you might take from this paper if you were asked  to give advice to a practicing innovation manager? 

• Where might people go to find out more – are there useful references or links  in the article which take the reader further?  

• Compare the article to others (5-10 – or more) which focus on the main  themes covered in the article  

• Don’t forget to put the FULL reference of the article you have reviewed, so  that others can find it and explore it for themselves  

• APA 7 referencing