Research Topic

Introduction to the research topic

Much has been written about the benefits of innovation and of ‘widening the net’, ‘intermediaries’ and ‘open innovation’. Clearly companies that are open to outside knowledge have taken a large step in the right direction to increase their innovative potential. The next step would be to make sense of this knowledge and consider how it could be applied for commercial ends.

This research project will look at the strategic alignment of external environment scanning and knowledge assimilation practices in SMEs involved in delivering technology related products. Based on the current thinking and observations of practice it is intended that a greater conceptual understanding of the linkages between the specific context of an organisation and appropriate external scanning and assimilation practices can be derived.

As illustrated in the case below, scanning the environment for new ideas presents a number of problems. These points are expanded on in a brief discussion of the key concepts.

Case (Stone Age man in Singapore): What we see is limited by what we know.
British Explorers brought a tribal chief from deep in the mountains of an isolated Malaysian peninsula to the seaport of Singapore at the beginning of the last century. The goal was to determine what and how much this tribesman from the stone age would notice after a day of “ sight-seeing” the ships, the tall buildings, market place and busy traffic of this thriving harbour city. At the end of the day, he recalled just one thing — a man carrying many bananas by himself in a cart. This amazing spectacle was close enough to the tribal person’s world of experience to be noticed and remembered. All the other images of Singapore that day had no meaning to him. He obviously could see the new buildings, ships, carriages, traffic, and oddly dressed people streaming by, but he lacked a frame of reference for these new images. These objects may have been at the centre of his vision, but they were peripheral to the world he was accustomed to. He was unprepared to receive them.
_{Extract from Day, GS (2006) Peripheral Vision: Detecting the Weak Signals that Will Make or Break Your Company: Seven Steps to Seeing Business Opportunities Sooner. Harvard Business School Press}

Subpages (1): Key Concepts

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