Participant, Catalyst or Spectator? – A study of how managers apply control in innovation processes

Abstract: This study is motivated by two research questions: (1) How is an organizational control system established and maintained in product and process innovation? (2) How are innovation processes facilitated or hindered as a result of the interplay between forms of control and autonomy? The thesis investigates these questions by means of an in-depth longitudinal case study involving 15 innovation projects at a Swedish multinational industrial organization – the Trelleborg Group. The established literature has recognized top management involvement as one of the most critical success factors in firms’ innovation efforts. However, we still know little about how top management involvement is executed along the different phases of innovation, from idea creation, to integration, and finally commercialization. By exploring the temporal dimension of innovation and control, the thesis suggests three types of roles top management can take during these phases, namely as participant, catalyst, and spectator. Alternative to the traditional view that innovation and control are always in tension, results in this thesis suggest that the involvement of top managers and their specific role in different phases of innovation can be a mediating factor for the co-existence of the two. By illustrating the co-existing, interplaying, and sometimes supportive relationship between control and innovation, this thesis advances our understanding of how responsible autonomy is used for managing innovation.