perspective state of the art the quality of case study research in innovation management

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State-of-the-Art: The Quality of Case Study Research in Innovation Management

2019, Journal of Product Innovation Management

The practice of innovation management is developing fast. As new concepts emerge, exploratory studies are needed and case study research is often appropriate. To investigate the usage and quality of case study research in innovation management, all of the articles published in five top journals over 20 years (1997-2016) were reviewed. Case study research accounted for 818 of the published articles in this period (12%) and an evaluation template (termed case study evaluation template: CASET) was developed to objectively assess these articles against 10 quality criteria. It was found that the quality of case study research has often been low, although it has improved over time. Similarly, quality was found to fluctuate both within and between the different innovation journals. This indicates that the peer review process for case study research is not as robust as it should be. The assessment of individual articles using the evaluation template found significant deficiencies. Many articles: did not justify why case study research was appropriate; did not apply theoretical sampling criteria; were not transparent on how conclusions were drawn from the data; did not consider validity and reliability adequately; and did not go beyond description in their interpretation. However, the evaluation template also identified 23 "exemplary studies," which clearly addressed nearly every criterion. Such exemplary studies provide innovation management researchers with "bench-mark" reading, which can help shape their own research. This article makes four contributions to the innovation management discipline. First, the evaluation template and exemplary studies can help innovation researchers improve the quality of their case study research. Second, clear recommendations are given for how reviewers can use the template to make the peer review process more consistent and robust. Third, journal editors are encouraged to consider the implications of the findings for their particular journal. Fourth, the article should stimulate a long overdue debate on methodology in innovation management research, including the use of case study research.

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PurposeInnovation goes beyond creation, concentrating on enhancement, which is essential for advancement. Since 1998, theEuropean Journal of Innovation Management(EJIM) has been a leading forum dedicated to thought leadership and research on the advances in innovation management. Given thatEJIMhas run over two decades, the time is now opportune to reflect on the journal's contributions to innovation management. Thus, this paper aims to retrospectively review the productivity, impact and knowledge of innovation management research inEJIM.Design/methodology/approachThis paper adopts a bibliometric methodology to engage in a retrospective review ofEJIM. The bibliographic data of 757 papers published inEJIMfrom 1998 to 2021 were retrieved from Scopus and analyzed using performance analysis and science mapping techniques.FindingsThe productivity (publication) and impact (citation) of innovation management research curated byEJIMhave grown prolifically over time. ThoughEJIMoperates wi...

Marko Torkkeli

Download full editorial at www.open-jim.org

Muhammad Sheeraz

Innovation Management has obtained so much consideration in functioning of management science field from the previous few years. Both Managers and academicians seem to be examining the nature of innovation and its significance for the development of an organization and competitive advantage (Lopes et al.,2016). Many research scholars have accepted positive effects of innovation towards an organization and we can find some research studies conducted on it in the past few years. Through this systematic review of past literature, this research study is an attempt to enhance the knowledge of the subject and to present the extensive analysis of the past research studies. The analysis of this study was conducted to see the trend of publications between the years 1970 to 2019; it used authors, journals, countries, universities/research institutions and different keywords related to innovation management as search words. After using multiple filters for removing irrelevant researches, 2160 ...

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In 2013, as a result of the project Development and Implementation of the Postgraduate Study Programme Innovation Management and Technologies, a new postgraduate study programme was developed and launched in Klaipėda University. Since the study programme has been running for a year now, a decision to evaluate its quality and to identify students' opinions about the significance of the tasks for the heads of the Research and Development Divisions, as laid out in the International Standard Classification of Occupations, as well as about the aims and the intended learning outcomes of the study programme, was taken. The objective of the survey was to evaluate the need for the studies of innovation management and the quality of their implementation, as well as to identify the directions of the innovation manager training improvement. To justify the need for managers trained in the Innovation Management and Technologies study programme, as well as their competences, a pilot survey was carried out. To evaluate the quality of the studies, quantitative research was conducted by means of a structurised written survey. The outcomes of the research proved that the study programme met the main needs of the students, and its aims and the intended learning outcomes were important and relevant for the training of innovation managers. The quality of the study programme can, and is to, be improved by active use of the case study method, by integrating the staff of innovation companies into the curriculum of the study programme, by changing the ratio between the time allotted for theoretical and practical studies, and by designing specific methodical guidelines for the writing of the Master’s final thesis in the present study programme.

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Article contents

Case study research: a state-of-the-art perspective.

• Eric Volmar Eric Volmar Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
•  and  Kathleen M. Eisenhardt Kathleen M. Eisenhardt Department of Management Science and Engineering, Stanford University
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.206
• Published online: 30 January 2020

Theory building from case studies is a research strategy that combines grounded theory building with case studies. Its purpose is to develop novel, accurate, parsimonious, and robust theory that emerges from and is grounded in data. Case research is well-suited to address “big picture” theoretical gaps and dilemmas, particularly when existing theory is inadequate. Further, this research strategy is particularly useful for answering questions of “how” through its deep and longitudinal immersion in a focal phenomenon. The process of conducting case study research includes a thorough literature review to identify an appropriate and compelling research question, a rigorous study design that involves artful theoretical sampling, rich and complete data collection from multiple sources, and a creative yet systematic grounded theory building process to analyze the cases and build emergent theory about significant phenomena. Rigorous theory building case research is fundamentally centered on strong emergent theory with precise theoretical logic and robust grounding in empirical data. Not surprisingly then, theory building case research is disproportionately represented among the most highly cited and award-winning research.

• research methods
• case studies
• grounded theory building
• theory building
• qualitative research
• theory elaboration
• machine learning

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State-of-the-Art: the quality of case study research in innovation management

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• DOI: 10.1093/acrefore/9780190224851.013.206
• Corpus ID: 213788143

Case Study Research: A State-of-the-Art Perspective

• Eric Volmar , K. Eisenhardt
• Published in Oxford Research Encyclopedia… 30 January 2020
• Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Business and Management

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Please note you do not have access to teaching notes, the state of the art of innovation management: insights from a retrospective review of the european journal of innovation management.

European Journal of Innovation Management

ISSN : 1460-1060

Article publication date: 22 September 2022

Issue publication date: 26 March 2024

Innovation goes beyond creation, concentrating on enhancement, which is essential for advancement. Since 1998, the European Journal of Innovation Management ( EJIM ) has been a leading forum dedicated to thought leadership and research on the advances in innovation management. Given that EJIM has run over two decades, the time is now opportune to reflect on the journal's contributions to innovation management. Thus, this paper aims to retrospectively review the productivity, impact and knowledge of innovation management research in EJIM .

Design/methodology/approach

This paper adopts a bibliometric methodology to engage in a retrospective review of EJIM . The bibliographic data of 757 papers published in EJIM from 1998 to 2021 were retrieved from Scopus and analyzed using performance analysis and science mapping techniques.

The productivity (publication) and impact (citation) of innovation management research curated by EJIM have grown prolifically over time. Though EJIM operates with a European title, the journal receives and publishes contributions worldwide (e.g. Asia, Europe, North America, South America and Oceania). Noteworthily, the knowledge of innovation management research in EJIM can be divided into four categories: basic themes (general), which comprise innovation, open innovation, new product development and product and process innovation; motor themes (well-developed), which consist of organizational culture and innovation and leadership and creativity; niche themes (very specialized), which include dynamic capabilities and business model innovation; and emerging or declining themes (weakly developed or marginalized), which is made up of research and development (R&D) and green innovation.

Originality/value

This paper offers a seminal retrospection of EJIM and the journal's productivity, impact and contribution to innovation management.

• Bibliometric analysis
• Bibliometric review
• Business model innovation
• Dynamic capabilities
• Green innovation
• New product development
• Process innovation
• Product innovation
• Open innovation
• Organizational culture
• Research and development
• Systematic review

Bamel, N. , Kumar, S. , Bamel, U. , Lim, W.M. and Sureka, R. (2024), "The state of the art of innovation management: insights from a retrospective review of the European Journal of Innovation Management ", European Journal of Innovation Management , Vol. 27 No. 3, pp. 825-850. https://doi.org/10.1108/EJIM-07-2022-0361

Emerald Publishing Limited

Copyright © 2022, Emerald Publishing Limited

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