Toward innovation capability maturity

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This research has its roots in Industrial Engineering, where the premise of improving and managingefficiency, effectiveness, productivity and quality is the most common and accepted source of organisationalsustenance and furtherance. This dissertation, however, addresses the evolutionary and revolutionaryimperatives of a new paradigm for competitive advantage – innovation. The notion of innovation isconsidered many things. First and foremost, however, it has become the primary differentiator oforganisational competitiveness, rendering it the source of sustained long-term prosperity.What may seem ambiguous in the title of this dissertation is essentially the imperative of every organisationfunctioning within the competitive domain. Where organisational maturity and innovativeness weretraditionally considered antonymous, the assimilation of these two seemingly contradictory notions isfundamental to the assurance of long-term organisational prosperity. Organisations are required, now morethan ever, to grow and mature their innovation capability.In working towards the fulfilment of this objective, the Maturity Modelling approach was recognised for itsability to describe organisational progression in terms of innovation capability. An Innovation CapabilityMaturity Model, with the intention of describing generic and evolutionary plateaus of innovation capabilitymaturity, was developed from a comprehensive literature study.This model was evaluated with an initial case study which led to a rigorous refinement initiative that includedfurther literature study, a mapping and comparison exercise, and a detailed analysis of innovation capabilitythemes using a Latent Dirichlet Allocation-based topic modelling approach. The consolidation of theseactivities and integration with the initial model resulted in the second version thereof – ICMM v2.This second version was then utilised in an additional 5 case studies that would serve to evaluate andvalidate the content and structure thereof, but also make a fundamental contribution to the application ofthe model – captured in the so called Innovation Capability Improvement Methodology. The case studiesprovide evidence that the content and structure of the ICMM v2, including the approach used to conveythese aspects, fulfil their intended purpose by appropriately identifying the innovation capability strengthsand weaknesses of the represented organisations.The ICMM v2 and accompanying methodology provides an organisation with a systematic approach foridentifying organisational innovation capability strengths and weaknesses and a framework for identifyingand prioritising innovation capability improvement opportunities in an organised and coordinated manner.This dissertation concludes with a few fundamental findings pertaining to innovation and a discussion ofpotential future collaboration and research opportunities.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University