The innovation pyramid: five approaches to strategic decision-making

Abstract

Purpose

The innovation pyramid presented in this paper ranks innovation types in terms of their capacity to provide organizations with a long-term commercialization advantage.

Design/methodology/approach

It is based on ten years of studying different types of innovation and helping hundreds of groups of MBA and Master students apply these insights to hundreds of organizations in different industries.

Findings

The innovation pyramid provides organizational leaders with a powerful heuristic to organize their strategic innovation priorities, in terms of aligning and committing organizational innovation efforts.

Practical implications

To help organizational leaders, this paper illustrates each innovation type with clarifying examples of a variety of well-known firms.

Originality/value

The pyramid provides an antidote to the technological determinism and confusing use of innovation jargon, both of which over-promise disruptive and radical performance effects. Instead, it offers clarity and succinctness of purpose both in terms of aligning and committing to innovation efforts and priorities.

Citation

Hensmans, M. (2022), "The innovation pyramid: five approaches to strategic decision-making", Journal of Business Strategy, Vol. 43 No. 4, pp. 229-238. https://doi.org/10.1108/JBS-12-2020-0292