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Insourcing Creativity with Listening Posts in Decentralized Firms
Author(s) -
Gassmann Oliver,
Gaso Berislav
Publication year - 2004
Publication title -
creativity and innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.148
H-Index - 60
eISSN - 1467-8691
pISSN - 0963-1690
DOI - 10.1111/j.1467-8691.2004.00289.x
Subject(s) - insourcing , business , benchmarking , active listening , knowledge management , excellence , creativity , empirical research , marketing , outsourcing , process management , computer science , sociology , psychology , social psychology , philosophy , communication , epistemology , political science , law
Technological listening posts as a means of technological knowledge sourcing were observed to be a widespread empirical phenomenon in centres of technological excellence and innovation clusters. Our research is based on 55 semi‐structured interviews with 12 technology‐intensive companies and 6 benchmarking‐workshops on external knowledge sourcing with 11 companies. We reveal three archetypes of listening posts: trend scout, technology outpost and matchmaker. We describe their respective mission, organizational structure and critical success factors. Each type is illustrated with case studies.