Linking innovativeness and organizational ideation - Exploring the choice of idea generation tools

Abstract

Finland has been referred to as innovative and highly competitive through different rankings in recent years. Granted, technology competence is high, but the truth is that only a few Finnish companies have been able to create innovative products and brand awareness outside of national boarders. This study is interested in taking a look at what is hindering companies from being more innovative and managing their ideas more successfully. The objective is to explore the area of organizational ideation and the innovation process in selected case companies, assessing the link between a company's innovativeness, idea generation tools and organizational culture.

A contextual review is provided with relevant literature surrounding the areas of innovation, organizational ideation and idea generation tools, as well as organizational culture. The research methodology used in this study is qualitative with multiple case studies. Based on their innovation efforts, five Finnish companies from various industries were chosen for this study. Two companies, Yle and Comptel, were interviewed more in-depth and three companies, Rovio, Kone and Fondia, were analysed through data collection from secondary material. The case companies were approached with three specific themes; level of innovativeness, current practices for idea generation and organizational culture as an enabling factor for innovativeness.

The research results revealed the importance of a well-communicated and executed strategy as one of the key aspects in the companies' innovation efforts. A company's idea management process must be clear and functioning as it can suffer from lack of ownership in the innovation process, causing confusion among the employees and distrust towards the management. Most of the case companies have, or are working towards having, innovation goals as a part of the company's overall strategic goals. Incorporating innovation into the company's overall goals and strategy is crucial in ensuring adequate resources and value to innovation efforts. Companies are opening up to experimenting new ways of innovating and generating ideas - they are no longer waiting for a big breakthrough idea to emerge, but rather are taking an active role in supporting and encouraging idea generation. The research results emphasized companies' need to have a low hierarchy organizational culture, high tolerance for failure and the courage to take risks in order to be innovative.