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While a radical innovation can be embedded in new products or new processes, most studies to date have concentrated on barriers to radical product innovations, with little insights available about the challenges for implementation of radical process innovations.

We theorize a set of barriers to radical process innovation based on a critical case study of an oil company. Our study employs data from 14 semi-structured interviews, one complete participant-observer in the process and access to all corporate documentation. The organization being studied was eventually unable to bring the new process technology to commercialization despite the technology having both technical feasibility and substantive cost savings potential.

We identify five groups of challenges that the company faced: (1) challenges in resource mobilization, (2) challenges in piloting strategy, (3) innovation leadership tensions, (4) tensions in managing shareholders' expectations and (5) product-process innovation tension (i.e. a unique situation when a company implementing a radical process innovation and simultaneously pursues the path to commercialize it as a product innovation).

Sustainable development is one of the major challenges in our era. Process innovations are crucial for achieving sustainability without changing the final product. By providing a list of challenges that executives face in the process of commercializing a radical process innovation, we can help them to achieve sustainability more effectively.

The paper responds to the call to increase our understanding of radical process innovations by utilizing a unique ethnographic research methodology of active participant-observation complemented by independent third-party face-to-face interviews.

Despite the keen interest in radical and incremental innovation, few studies have tested the varying impact of firm-level factors in service sectors. This paper analyses how collaboration with existing and prospective users and investments in knowledge management (KM) practices can be adapted to maximise the outputs of radical and incremental process innovation in a knowledge-intensive business service industry.

Original survey data from 166 information technology service firms and interviews with 13 executives provide the empirical evidence. Partial least squares-structural equation modelling is used to analyse the data.

Collaboration with different types of users, and investments in KM practices affect radical versus incremental process innovation differently. Collaboration with existing users influences incremental process innovation directly, but not radical innovation; and prospective user collaboration matters for radical, but not incremental innovation. Furthermore, for radical innovation, investments in KM practices mediate the impact of prospective user collaboration on innovation.

While collaboration with existing users for incremental process innovations does not appear to generate significant managerial challenges, to pursue radical innovations firms must engage in intensive collaboration with prospective users. Higher involvement with prospective users requires higher investment in KM practices to promote efficient intra- and inter-firm knowledge flows.

This study is based on a large-scale survey, together with management interviews. Radical and incremental innovations in the service industry require engagements with different kinds of users, and the use of KM tools.

This paper aims to investigate the dynamics of the organizational buying process of radical software innovations. Acquisition of technology innovations by early adopting organizations has been studied previously with scant attention being given to the actual buying process and the risk mitigation mechanism. This paper addresses these gaps in the literature and this paper finds evidence to support that the organizational buying process of radical software innovations is different from the general models of organizational buying.

Methods from the grounded theory approach were used to conduct 20 in-depth interviews with senior industry practitioners. Purposive sampling was used to identify the participants.

A theoretical model of the organizational buying process of radical software innovations emerged with themes and concepts that explain the dynamics of the buying and adoption processes. The paper challenges the fundamental tenet of organizational buying that needs recognition triggers the buying process. An interesting nuance was found that risk is mitigated within the buying action itself.

An understanding of the buyer behaviour process will help marketers of radical software innovations to formulate the appropriate marketing response. Sales personnel can attune their customer interactions when helping customers to acquire a radical software innovation. Firms that want to be early adopters and innovate can tune their buying process in line with the findings.

This paper develops a typological buying model. It unravels the dynamics of the adoption process by discussing how early adopting organizations buy radical software innovations. New concepts with rich explanatory powers are discussed.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the degree of customer‐related proactiveness in the process of developing radical innovations.

The initial framework for this study is first created on the basis of the theory and then modified in the light of multiple retrospective case studies.

The results show that the stage of the innovation development process seems to influence the degree of proactiveness. Contrary to many earlier studies, this research indicates that anticipation plays an important role already at the idea generation stage.

The study introduces a way of describing a firm's proactiveness as a dynamic pattern. Thus, the process approach adopted in this research may encourage further longitudinal studies on the phenomenon. Given the explorative nature of the study, the propositions arising from the modified framework should be evaluated according to additional data.

The results of this study indicate that a systematic search for new market opportunities, and the firm's previous experience of customers, may generate not only incremental but also radical innovations. Proactiveness is not always needed, however, as the cases indicate. Firms ought therefore to consider carefully when it is appropriate to invest in customer‐related proactiveness, and when it is not.

The main contribution of the study stems from the combination of customer‐related proactiveness and the process of radical‐innovation development. It is among the first to combine these streams of research.

This study examines the effects of incremental and radical creativity on both product and process innovation by considering the moderating roles of knowledge sharing in intensity and quality.

Primary research is conducted over 250 employees from service and manufacturing firms operating in Pakistan. Principal component analyses are conducted for the data reduction process, and multiple regression analyses are performed to test the research hypotheses.

Knowledge sharing intensity and the quality of knowledge sharing moderate the effects of radical creativity on product and process innovation that predicts firm performance. Besides, the research presents the differences in the impacts of incremental and radical creativity with the moderations of organisational knowledge on product and process innovations between the service and manufacturing firms and implications for practitioners and researchers.

This work represents a sample from manufacturing and service firms operating in Pakistan. Still, caution is the generalising specific results to other organisations in either service or manufacturing domains or manufacturing.

While boosting creativity in organisations, knowledge sharing practices differ for sector domains. For service firms, knowledge intensity is essential, while knowledge quality is meaningful for manufacturing firms.

This study contributes to the literature at the crossroads of organisational creativity and innovation twofold; the first is to investigate the combined effects of incremental and radical creativity on product and process innovation separately. The second is to examine the moderator roles of knowledge sharing practices of knowledge quality and intensity while predicting product and process innovation with incremental and radical creativity.

The objective in this study is to examine the relationship between innovation speed, and radical product and process innovations.

A survey of firms in the high‐tech (semiconductor, audio video equipment and computer hardware) industries was conducted. Hypotheses were tested using a hierarchical multiple regression analysis.

The results revealed a significant positive relationship between innovation speed and both radical product and radical process innovations. Radical product and process innovations were highly correlated in the sample.

Response rate was relatively low to the survey, however, control variables were included to ensure accuracy of results. This study empirically tested inter‐innovation relationships within the high‐tech industry.

Findings suggest that firms should not avoid radical innovations with the fear of being late to market. In addition, based on these results, product and process innovations are closely linked to one another, and to innovation speed.

This is one of the few studies to examine inter‐innovation relationships at the firm level.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the contribution of network competence to radical innovation.

Technological change associated with human body disposal acts as the form of radical innovation in which network competence is examined. Interviews, observations at industry conferences and secondary data are used for the case studies featured and in which network competence is investigated.

The paper establishes the importance of network competence at the regime and landscape level and the contribution of actors within commercial innovation niches to bringing cremation alternatives to market.

Some of the results are particular to the challenges of network entry and product introduction facing business start-ups and the context of body disposal is unique. Further research should examine network competence and radical innovation in other business fields.

Firstly, the context of human body disposal highlights the importance of institutional actors and social systems in bringing cremation alternatives to market. Secondly, focusing on human disposal encourages exchange amongst readers on a subject which is fundamental to man’s existence, yet the discussion of which many might normally choose to avoid.

The paper connects two areas of academic interest, namely, niche management for sustainability and radical innovation in business markets in which networking and network competence are key to the commercialisation of innovation.

This paper seeks to endorse the management control system taxonomy by Robert Simons to explore whether, how and why different approaches to management control are more intensely employed: in different phases of the radical innovation process; and in innovation projects showing different degrees of radicalness. Moreover, it aims to discuss the influence exerted by some contextual variables.

Case studies concerning four innovation projects (two radical in nature and two incremental) implemented by two companies operating in the home automation industry in Italy were conducted.

It is found that radical innovation projects, especially in the early stages of development, are characterized by a stronger reliance on flexible and social control management systems, while diagnostic control mainly emerges in late development and commercialization. Moreover, the moderating effect of the hypothesized contingent variables is widely discussed.

The work shows that Simons' taxonomy of the management control systems is a useful framework for exploring management control in radical projects at a strategic level, but also that it should be refined, as evidence shows a systematic hybridization of the systems adopted. An important implication is the great reliance on interactive systems, especially in the early stages. In this perspective, a deeper analysis on the nature and the proper management of interactivity could represent an interesting development of this study.

The recurrent features in the two cases provide practitioners with a useful benchmark about management control of radical innovation projects in two successful companies. Case histories suggest the great importance of information sharing among the functions, and the need to properly develop interface structures between the involved functions to favor it in radical innovation processes.

The paper is one of the first works on management control in radical innovation projects, and it contributes to the literature debate in two main ways: it tests Simons' taxonomy of management control systems for innovation projects, and it highlights the areas of improvement for analyzing “radicalness” in innovation processes.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a research model exploring the link between open innovation, customer knowledge management and radical innovation. It seeks to answer these research questions: is there any difference among the effects of different types of open innovation activities on radical innovation? How does the organizational learning ability influence the impact of customer knowledge management on radical innovation?

The paper is based on the data collected from a sample of 165 modern service enterprises located in the Yangtze River Delta region. The authors conducted a structural equation modeling analysis using SPSS and MPLUS to test the proposed hypotheses.

The results showed that different kinds of open innovation activities had different impacts on the path to radical innovation. Inbound open innovation activities directly influenced radical innovation while the effect of outbound open innovation activities on radical innovation combined with the organizational exploitative learning ability is indirect. Similarly, the empirical results also proved that customer knowledge management had an indirect effect on radical innovation through the organizational learning ability, and the influence of the exploratory learning ability was more prominent.

Under the background of the national innovation driven by the development strategy, this paper studies the impact mechanism of radical innovation from the perspectives of open innovation and customer knowledge management. Therefore, it is suggested that the enterprise should adopt open innovation activities to foster innovation performance, formulate a customer-oriented innovation strategy and invest information and communication technologies to enhance the organizational learning ability of the enterprise.

The paper aims to address the issue of generalizability by examining process formality across the global regions of North America, Europe and Asia. A common prescription in the new product development (NPD) discipline is to employ a formal process. Because generalizability of this prescription has not been fully investigated across global regions, the present manuscript addresses the issue of generalizability by examining process formality across the global regions of North America, Europe and Asia.

Recently made available to researchers, data of the Product Development and Management Association’s 2012 Comparative Performance Assessment Study (CPAS) were analyzed. The uniqueness of the 2012 CPAS data set is its global composition with sizable samples from North America, Europe and Asia. Chi-square tests and multivariate analysis of variance were applied.

Results support use of a formal process, as companies with a formal NPD process perceived higher performance than companies with no standard process. Process formality appears to differ across regions and be influenced by innovation strategy. European firms tended to not use a formal process when pursuing radical innovation, and these firms perceived higher performance. North American firms tended to not use a formal process when pursing incremental innovation, but these firms perceived lower performance.

Having some NPD process is generally better than not having any process at all. Process differences across regions appear to exist when pursuing radical innovation or incremental innovation.

This is one of few studies comparing global regions to examine generalizability of a best practice prescription, namely, the extent to which a formal process should be implemented.