Managing the emergence of concepts in fuzzy front end: a framework of strategic performance and emerging process of innovation briefs

Sophie Hooge (), Milena Chen and Dominique Laousse
Additional contact information
Sophie Hooge: CGS i3 - Centre de Gestion Scientifique i3 - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres - I3 - Institut interdisciplinaire de l’innovation - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, DTMI Chair - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Milena Chen: SNCF : Innovation & Recherche - SNCF, DTMI Chair - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres
Dominique Laousse: SNCF : Innovation & Recherche - SNCF, DTMI Chair - Mines Paris - PSL (École nationale supérieure des mines de Paris) - PSL - Université Paris Sciences et Lettres

Post-Print from HAL

Abstract: Despite the importance of new concept development (NCD) literature, the variety and evolution of concepts generated in the fuzzy front end and that lead to the concepts that will be design briefs for new product, technology and radical innovation projects is still misunderstood. In this paper, we propose to address this issue of multiplicity and coherence of emerging concept descriptions in the fuzzy front end at three levels of analysis — cognitive, managerial and strategic — in order to describe the dynamics of conceptual works. We rely on a longitudinal study (8 years) of the innovation capability management in a large established firm, SNCF, the French railroad company. Our main results are i) to give a typology of emerging concept formulations; ii) to elicit a structured process of building a "desirable unknown" for both the firm and involved individuals, that gather three dimensions: cognitive generative power, collaborative attractiveness for new organizations experimentation, and strategic positioning renewal of the firm in quickly evolving environments; and iii) to explicit specific patterns of emerging concept that can improve the performance of design briefs. We thereby contribute to guide practitioners involved in NCD work to reach their innovation goals.

Keywords: Fuzzy front end; Radical innovation; emerging concepts; design briefs (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019-06
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-cse, nep-ppm and nep-sbm
Note: View the original document on HAL open archive server: https://hal.science/hal-02167857v1
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Published in EURAM, Jun 2019, Lisbon, Portugal

Downloads: (external link)
https://hal.science/hal-02167857v1/document (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:hal:journl:hal-02167857

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Post-Print from HAL
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CCSD ().