Promotors and Champions of Innovation: Barriers to Innovation and Innovator Roles

Abstract

Research has shown that dedicated individuals driving innovation activities are essential for achieving innovation success. Different roles played by individuals correspond with specific barriers to innovation in organizations, which can be overcome by cooperation of such champions or promotors of innovation. Multiple role combinations, parallel enacted champion roles, and variations of role structures over time in a project depend on the specific innovation challenge.

Perspective: Leveraging Open Innovation through Paradox

“…Paradox literature has shown how paradoxical approaches deal with tensions by assigning opposing poles to different temporal, spatial, or structural areas; this is called differentiation (Adler, Goldoftas, and Levine, ; Poole and Van De Ven, ; Smith and Tushman, ). In a similar vein, open innovation studies have described how the tension between control and openness can be dealt with by separating control and openness efforts across hierarchical positions (Rolandsson, Bergquist, and Ljungberg, ), staff (Boudreau and Lakhani, ), software modules (Henkel et al, ), information narratives, and temporary roles enacted by employees and/or external contributors in open innovation collaborations (Faraj et al, ; Lüttgens, Pollok, Antons, and Piller, ; Salomo and Gemunden, ). For example, Faraj and colleagues () showed how a controlled “front” narrative can be used in online communities to inform both the public and the community of the general state and performance of the community, such as by sharing with the reader the work being developed by the community and the general terms of membership (p. 1232).…”