Thomas Abrell

To meet the challenge of continuous innovation, established corporations turn to entrepreneurial innovation, for which one of the success factors is working with customers and users and using their knowledge. This study contributes to the body of knowledge by addressing the role of customer knowledge and user knowledge in early internal corporate venturing projects in business-to-business (B2B) firms. We conducted a single case study with five sub-cases in a large European manufacturing corporation. Our contributions are two-fold: First, we show that the characteristics of the B2B manufacturing industry prevent tacit customer knowledge from being acquired in the early stage of internal corporate venturing, so corporate entrepreneurs must rely on explicit customer knowledge. Second, we find a difference between user corporate entrepreneurs with personal user backgrounds and developer corporate entrepreneurs, who do not consider user knowledge important. We find first evidence of user entrepreneurship in the early stage of internal corporate venturing.

Diffusion of digital technologies into the manufacturing industry has created new opportunities for innovation that firms must address to remain competitive. We investigate the role of customer and user knowledge in the digital innovation processes of three global B2B manufacturing companies. We find that the B2B manufacturing industry's characteristics influence how users and customers may be leveraged. Customers making the purchasing decisions are considered for knowledge about short-term changes in market needs, while users working directly with the products provide long-term guidance for digital innovation. We identify practices for acquiring, distributing, and using customer and user knowledge for digital innovation.

Technology-driven organisations are facing new challenges to gain a competitive advantage. It becomes even more challenging to be a step ahead of the competition through technical advance while better addressing user needs may be a way to differentiate. When aiming to develop products that better address the user needs it becomes crucial to understand who are the users and what are their needs, what is the value of user information, and how the information can be used to design more desirable products that may lead to a competitive advantage. We conducted a multiple case study at two technology-driven companies in the aviation and healthcare industry that are aiming to involve users more into the new product development (NPD) process. A series of 14 qualitative interviews revealed two main findings that are discussed: (1) there are different types of information needs according to the development stages and (2) the value of user involvement needs to be recognised from both, the company and its customers.

This study examines design thinking and effectuation in internal corporate venturing. By researching five internal corporate venturing projects in their early stage from idea to concept to a project that is funded and staffed, we reveal elements of effectuation and design thinking from the viewpoint of the corporate entrepreneur. We find that corporate entrepreneurs work mainly following an effectuative logic, especially through their own means, while elements of prediction are imposed through decision gates in the case company. Furthermore, we find connections to design thinking. We conceptually compare design thinking and effectuation and contribute to the body of knowledge through bridging design thinking and effectuation to internal corporate venturing as well as the connection of design thinking and effectuation.

This study explores the connection between design thinking and corporate entrepreneurship. As suggested by earlier pioneering studies, the potential of design thinking for recognising entrepreneurial opportunities is researched. In addition, the levers and challenges of design thinking are subject to this study to find other links between design thinking and corporate entrepreneurship. We conducted expert interviews with eleven interviewees in ten organisations. The study revealed a variety of approaches that have been structured. Design thinking is utilised to improve new product and service development. The study revealed ambiguous results whether design thinking leads to new entrepreneurial opportunities. Understanding the user can be one element leading towards opportunities, however, the organisation needs to be capable to act on them. In addition, design thinking is often linked to corporate entrepreneurship in other ways, namely the partnering with startups and championing a project. These findings open important avenues for further research on the connection between design thinking and corporate entrepreneurship, namely in respect of strategic renewal as well as the collaboration with start-ups.

Design Thinking and corporate entrepreneurship are both topical in the contemporary innovation management discourse. This study outlines promising avenues for future research for the two concepts’ connections and synergies. Four research themes are identified and presented: Design Thinking and opportunity recognition/creation, Design Thinking and effectuation in corporate entrepreneurship, Design Thinking and corporate entrepreneurship strategy, as well as entrepreneurial design management. Promising avenues for each research theme are identified. Two of the research themes are on an individual level, while the other two themes are on an organizational level. The study contributes to the fields of corporate entrepreneurship and Design Thinking by conceptually linking the two, presenting research in the field and noting avenues for further research.