When Tradition Turns Into Innovation

Starting from the increasing difficulties firms face to create new value for customers and achieve competitive advantage, this book proposes an innovative strategy to sustain innovation at the product level, based on the notion of tradition. Specifically, the authors argue that firms may successfully innovate, exploiting the whole set of competencies, knowledge, values and culture that characterize a specific firm, territory, and/or age. Analyzing several international case studies, this book clearly shows how tradition may be effectively used, allowing companies to create successful new products and how to profit from them. The book tackles the main issues and problems of a tradition-based innovation approach, tracing the patterns of how old and new knowledge can be combined.

• Proposes a new strategic model for promoting and sustaining innovation at product level
• Merges a theoretical perspective with actual cases
• Develops a set of implications that allows managers and practitioners to implement an alternative approach to innovation

Autorentext

Dr Antonio Messeni Petruzzelli is research fellow at the Politecnico di Bari (Italy), where he teaches Technology Strategy. A PhD. In Innovation Management and visiting scholar at the IESE Business School (Barcelona, Spain), his research interests mainly concern the area of innovation management, including themes such as value creation and appropriation, knowledge creation and transfer, and inter-organizational relationships. In these topics he has published several articles with international journals and presented papers at conferences around the worl.

Inhalt

Re-thinking innovation approach; The meaning of tradition; A tradition-based innovation strategy; Case studies; Towards a new perspective of innovation.