Which Factors Enable Self-Organized Product Innovations? The Diverse Effects of Formal Management Systems

This chapter investigates which organizational and managerial factors foster or hamper self-organized or autonomous innovation activities within firms. Based on a case study approach and on a theoretical framework, which is rooted in the complexity science and innovation literature, the informal bottom-up NPD projects of six Austrian electronics companies are examined. The analysis focuses mainly on the role of an open communication culture that delivers autonomy for experimentation, the impacts of financial incentives systems, the rigidity of organizational structures and, finally, the formalism of control systems. The authors deliver evidence how classical formal management systems affect self-organized innovation activities and how they can be designed deliberately to promote and harness such bottom-up activities.