Front end innovation and stakeholder involvement in the machine tools sector

Are there differences among companies operating pursuing different types of innovation in the organisational settings and in the combination of internal and external competencies employed to innovate? In this paper we try to answer this question focusing on the front end phase of innovation because, although the early stages are well recognised as vital for the subsequent success of the entire innovative process, research on these topicis still very limited. Our argument is that, since incremental and radical innovation leverage on different knowledge sources, the organisational approach adopted in the front end to realise the full potential of open innovation will be also different. In particular, we concentrate on front end activities that lead to radical/discontinuous and incremental innovations and analyse the different organisational and network arrangements implemented by companies operating in the machine tools industry. We decided to analyse this particular setting because in recent years the sectoral system of innovation in machine tools has experienced important transformations that have led to significant changes in firms' organisation and technological performance. © 2011 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.