Knowledge Base Repository
In addition to research papers, the Design Society is developing several valuable resources for those interested in the study of design. These include a repository of PhD theses, a library of case studies and transcripts of design activities, and an archive of our newsletters. Please note that these resources are accessible exclusively to Design Society members.
Assumptions for incremental innovations in SMEs
Watty, Robert
Type:
Year:
2013
Editor:
Udo Lindemann, Srinivasan V, Yong Se Kim, Sang Won Lee, John Clarkson, Gaetano Cascini
Author:
Series:
ICED
Institution:
University of Applied Sciences Ulm, Germany
Page(s):
159-168
ISBN:
978-1-904670-44-5
ISSN:
2220-4334
Abstract:
Innovation is an precondition for the success of companies in today’s markets to differentiate from their competitors. Particularly ‘radical’ innovations are addressed in numerous research contributions, product contests and advertisements, although they are related to less than 10% of the innovations, carry a high risk of failure and often require a high investment in research and development. Small and medium enterprises (SME) are often very successful in specialized market segments and with incremental innovations adapted to the needs of their customers. Prosperous product development in this context demands intense knowledge about the targeted market, competitive products and demanded objectives for new products as well as an appropriate development process starting. This paper addresses the research question how to improve existing products in SMEs by incremental steps. It describes the context of radical and incremental product innovation, explains preconditions for the adoption of innovations, suggests an approach to systematically implement incremental product development in SMEs taken from Kaizen and describes a case study applying and verifying this approach in a SME.
Keywords:
