Re-thinking Innovation Measurement to Manage Innovation-Related Dichotomies in Practice

Paper in proceeding, 2012

Innovation performance measurement has developed from focusing on issues of control and monitoring towards a more supportive role for managers on a strategic, informative and motivational level. Despite its potential to facilitate innovation management measuring provides a challenge in practice not the least when a company has the ambition to manage both radical and incremental innovation. This paper, based on literature review with empirical illustrations from three case studies, argues that these issues derives from the need to manage a number of dichotomies which are present due to the essential differences associated to each type of innovation. These dichotomies are related to time, uncertainty, flexibility and control. The implications on the design and use of an innovation performance measurement system are explored and analyzed through the lens of dichotomies. The study contributes to the innovation measurement theory and provides basis for an analytical framework aiming to support the design and implementation of innovation performance measurement in practice.