Purpose Firms frequently struggle with measuring the performance of their radical innovation activities. Due to the uncertainty and ambiguity involved, key performance indicators (KPIs) used for incremental innovation projects are often not useful in this context. The purpose of this paper is to explore suitable KPIs particularly useful for radical innovation projects. Design/methodology/approach This study first reviews commonly used measures for innovation projects, which is then followed by case-study evidence from three industry-leading international firms. This study includes 13 in-depth interviews with innovation managers and directors in these firms, providing insights on how they measure the progress and performance of radical innovation projects. Findings KPIs used commonly in incremental innovation showed lackluster results in the case firms and were problematic for radical innovation context. A key finding was that radical innovation project performance should be evaluated based on the process rather than on the expected outcome. Concurrently, based on the literature review and the cases, three sets of KPIs with 13 specific KPIs useful for radical innovation projects are proposed. Originality/value The paper addresses a core challenge in using established KPIs in a radical innovation context. The paper gathers and synthesizes a range of measurement points suitable for radical innovation projects and provides specific suggestions for appropriate metrics that innovation managers can use.

The European maritime transport policy recognizes the importance of the waterborne transport systems as key elements for sustainable growth in Europe. A major goal is to transfer more than 50% of road transport to rail or waterways within 2050. To meet this challenge waterway transport needs to get more attractive and overcome its disadvantages. Therefore, it is necessary to develop new knowledge and technology and find a completely new approach to short sea and inland waterways shipping. A key element in this is automation of ships, ports and administrative tasks aligned to requirements of different European regions. One main goal in the AEGIS project is to increase the efficiency of the waterways transport with the use of higher degrees of automation corresponding with new and smaller ship types to reduce costs and secure higher frequency by feeders and provide multimodal green logistics solutions combining short sea shipping with rail and road transport.

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This paper poses a critical view on radical innovation (RI) management research and practice. The study investigates how expected RI performance influences firms’ understanding of their RI capability. RI performance is often based on output measures such as market shares or fiscal return. On the contrary, RI capability building advocates for exploration, learning, and accepting uncertainty. Hence, RI capability building often focuses on the processes of the firms, and not the outcome. Thus, it is argued that the RI capability-building and RI performance expectations are based on different managerial orientations. Coupling a discussion of the literature with case findings from four large international firms, this paper identifies a discrepancy between RI capability-building and RI performance within literature and practice. This is regarded to be a major contributing factor to RI program failure. This study presents three misunderstandings related to RI research and practice and discusses implications of these findings.

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