How do organizations stay innovative while also running their daily business? This lecture explores how companies manage the tension between efficiency and adaptability, and what it takes to keep an entrepreneurial spirit alive inside established firms.

Organizations often face the challenge of balancing two demands: creating value in the present while also searching for opportunities to create value in the future. This lecture examines how companies can remain innovative and entrepreneurial through effective innovation management.

We look at how firms such as Apple organize for innovation¹, emphasizing deep expertise, cross-functional collaboration, and leaders who immerse themselves in details. Innovation is defined as the creation and development of new products, services, business models, or processes², and we explore examples that help clarify where creativity turns into genuine innovation.

Central to the session is the “idea journey”³, which outlines four phases of innovation: generation, elaboration, championing, and implementation. Each phase requires different organizational conditions—from cognitive flexibility and support, to influence, legitimacy, and a shared vision. We also discuss three paradoxes of innovation: the tension between generating and reducing uncertainty, between idea development and implementation, and between incremental and radical innovation.

Finally, the lecture highlights how different theoretical perspectives—ranging from network theory and self-determination theory to social identity and leadership approaches—offer different predictions for innovative and entrepreneurial behavior at the individual, team, and organizational level. This plurality of perspectives allows us to better understand how organizations can successfully embed entrepreneurship and innovation in their structures and cultures.

Literature

• Podolny, J. M., & Hansen, M. T. (2021). How Apple is organized for innovation. Harvard Business Review.
• Perry-Smith, J. E., & Mannucci, P. V. (2017). From creativity to innovation: The social network drivers of the four phases of the idea journey. Academy of Management Review, 42(1), 53–79.

About the Course

The MSc course Innovation & Entrepreneurship in Context examines how entrepreneurs and organizations create and sustain innovation within their broader environment. Core themes include creativity, entrepreneurial identity, legitimacy, networks, and opportunity structures, with an emphasis on how these factors shape the success of new ventures and the renewal of established firms.

Students engage in interactive lectures, case studies, and team assignments that connect theory to practice. They learn to analyze innovation and entrepreneurship holistically, evaluate internal and external influences, and develop evidence-based recommendations for real companies. Assessment combines a group case study and presentation with an individual exam.