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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal – Vol. 8, No. 7
Publication Date: July 25, 2021
DOI:10.14738/assrj.87.10518. Matriano, M. T. (2021). Strategic Approach to Innovation Management and Strategic Changes to Improve Innovation Management.
Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(7). 323-329.
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Strategic Approach to Innovation Management and Strategic
Changes to Improve Innovation Management
Dr. Maria Teresa Matriano
Assistant Professor, Department of Management Studies
Middle East College, Al Rusayl, Muscat, Oman
ABSTRACT
Innovation can be described as developing new ideas and processes that aims to
create new products or improving business processes. Organizations today looks
into the concept of innovation as a way to increase value and develop new ways of
doing business. On the other hand, adopting an innovation requires strategic
management approaches in order to ensure that the current innovation
implementations will yield significant improvements. With innovation comes
change and organizations will need not only to adopt innovative processes, but
should also be able to implement change; this is when innovation management
becomes apparent. Every organization adopt innovation approach of varying scale
such modest, moderate, and strong. From each approach strategies can be derived
depending on the how the innovation will be used and how it will impact the
organization as a whole. In the case of Oman, different strategies were created to
leverage on the capabilities of an organization. Some organizations form
partnerships to achieve a common goal and to create a platform in which managing
the implemented innovation becomes a shared responsibility of the partnering
organizations. In some cases, strategies employed in innovation management is
being done to accelerate development as a form of innovation improvement
outcome.
Keywords: Innovation Management, Change Strategy, Innovation Process, Innovation
Strategy
INTRODUCTION
Innovation is a way for organizations to ride the fast-paced world of technology and discovery.
Given that innovation plays a pivotal role in ensuring the business and the organization is
moving towards the future, it is important to note that innovation concepts have to be carefully
managed. Innovation management on the other hand requires specific and strategic approach
in order to implement strategic changes for improvement. When speaking about strategy, it
involves making choices between a number of feasible options that presents the best potential
for success. The absence of strong strategic approach in innovation management makes it
difficult for organizations to achieve long-term growth. This is because strategic approach
orients the business to pick up speed in securing competitive advantage. According to Dogan
(2017), having a strategic perspective on innovation allow organizations to look at the whole
business beyond product and process in order to create value. The success of world-renowned
companies leverages on innovation along with systematic and holistic approach by means of
allowing innovation to fully integrate with its objectives, and align the systems to be compatible
with the strategy.
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Advances in Social Sciences Research Journal (ASSRJ) Vol. 8, Issue 7, July-2021
Services for Science and Education – United Kingdom
Organizations in Oman are working to replicate the same growth that successful organization
has achieved. In order to do that, organizations in the country needs to realize the importance
of having a strategic approach to innovation management and strategic changes to improve
innovation management. The discussion will demonstrate the importance of strategy when it
comes to managing innovation. This also includes discussion on change strategies in improving
innovation management. In terms of geographical focus, strategic approach to change and
innovation management will be explored with Oman organizations in mind. Managing
innovation takes consideration of the four main attributes namely capabilities, culture,
structures, and strategy. When it comes to strategic changes for innovation management
improvement, the people in the organization represents the implementation side of change. The
final stage of innovation happens at the implementation level and the people in the organization
plays an important part of the innovation process. Most of the struggling organization can
improve on innovation through effective change and strategic approach.
OVERVIEW ON INNOVATION MANAGEMENT IN OMAN
For decades Oman has been reliant to its oil-driven economy, but the recent decline in the global
oil prices has led the country to explore other economic streams. At the same time,
organizations both public and private area learning to adapt to changes brough by innovation.
The only challenge that organizations on Oman that needs to overcome is how to sustain
innovation and adapt to the changes as the situation demands. Part of the strategic management
approach is through collaboration between organizations in the country. One example is the
joint collaboration between the International Sustainability, Resources & Technology
Conference, International Solid Waste Association, G-STIC, and Oman Environmental Services
Holding Company (G-STIC, N.D.). The collaboration aims to establish a regional technological
innovation platform in Oman with the objective of accelerating the deployment of various
technological solutions that can help Oman to transition to a circular economy. The project
provides a platform for the business sectors to innovate in terms of resource management and
environmental sustainability. One of the advantages of collaboration as a strategic approach is
that managing innovation can be done through a joint effort between organizations. This is
because the strategies involved are developed based multiple organizational perspectives with
experts and professionals leading the change.
The described strategic approach resonates with the objectives of the bio-industry sector in
Oman. The only difference is that that the collaborative efforts are focusing on strengthening
open innovation. Innovation management involves a process of creating and introducing new
ways to develop the business one way or another, and one of the ways in which the bio-industry
organizations to manage innovation is by creating a network of stakeholders (Al-Belushi et al.,
2018). The collaboration network provides a communication platform for the bio-tech
organizations to share ideas and allow it grow into an executable concept by combining ideas
shared by the other organizations in the network. The approach helps organizations in the
network to reach innovation maturity because outcomes are measured and assessed based on
the shared knowledge by other organizations. The driving force in the described strategy in
innovation management among the bio-industry organizations is the presence of an open
community in which knowledge of risks, compliance, culture and outcome measures are
shared. In addition, the emerging innovation from an open collaboration will have a disrupted
attribute considering that the management of its conception and implementation is at an
industry level.
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Matriano, M. T. (2021). Strategic Approach to Innovation Management and Strategic Changes to Improve Innovation Management. Advances in
Social Sciences Research Journal, 8(7). 323-329.
URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.14738/assrj.87.10518
STRATEGIC APPROACH TO INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Strategic innovation can be described as a future-oriented concept that encompasses creative
discovery. Several literatures were dedicated to examining strategic innovation and
management. One of the notable studies that demonstrated a clear perspective on innovation
management is the conceptual framework suggested by Horn and Brem (2013). It was found in
the study that strategic innovation management should be built on external and intra-firm
openness. The conceptual framework also suggests that change encompasses seven main
attributes namely frugality, global innovation alignment, intellectual property, customer
orientation, business model, sustainability, and network organization. This concept involves
relates corporate entrepreneurship behaviors with the organization’s strategic models (Tseng
and Tseng, 2019). It resonates with the result of the study by Prokop and Stejskal(2017) where
the authors emphasized the importance of differentiating the activities surrounding innovation
management between strong, moderate, and modest approach to innovation. The
aforementioned are modes of innovation that organizations can adopt and each mode
encompasses varying impact on innovation output.
For modest innovators, the technological capabilities are limited and the efforts made are less
likely to render an effective output (Parrilli et al., 2020). Whereas, moderate innovators have a
higher absorptive capacity and could dedicated resources towards more in-depth activities in
research and develop. As for strong innovators, the capabilities are much greater and have the
capacity to use all set of drivers that are guaranteed to produce the highest impact. In terms of
approach, innovation management can be done either through emergent, iterative, or
integrative approach. Emergent approach can be described as a transformation of novel ideas
that will enable the business to achieve value. In this regard, organizations should demonstrate
proactiveness to innovate and does not only do so re respond to pressing situations caused by
environmental change. In iterative approach, the process of idea generation to implementation
involves planning, taking action, checking output based on top-down, bottom up, or middle
management style. In integrative approach, innovation management happens by enriching
existing innovation ecosystems and integrate its concepts to enable a systematic approach to
management and applied disciplines. The general concept of innovation management is to
create something that will lead the organization to a more progressive future. Every strategy
has to be aligned with the organization’s goals since no strategy will fit all success formula.
In the case of Oman, organizations are starting to realize the advantage of having strong
strategies in innovation management. In an article submitted by FTI Consulting to Ooredoo in
Oman (Ooredoo, 2020), it was stated that the telecom company has undertaken a digital
transformation through collaboration with industry leaders in technology and pioneers of
digital development. Another important milestone that Ooredoo has achieved in terms of
innovation management is partnerships with startups such as MATRIXX software to develop
new technologies. This is an example of a strategic approach in a form of collaboration. Using
the innovation management employed by Ooredoo (2020), it can be assumed that the
management approach uses collaboration as a strategy. In addition, the strategy encompasses
an integrative approach considering the role of MATRIXX software in Ooredoo’s innovation
programs. For example, MATRIXX software integrates their development concepts into
Ooredoo’s existing systems and network infrastructure to overcome the challenges of
upgrading legacy architectures. This allowed Ooredoo to avoid a full stack replacement of their
infrastructure (Ooredoo, 2020). Based on the example, it is apparent that the organization have