Open AccessINNOVATION CHAMPIONS’ ACTIVITIES AND INFLUENCES IN ORGANISATIONS — A LITERATURE REVIEW
Author(s) -
Katharina Drechsler,
Victoria Reibenspiess,
Andreas Eckhardt,
HeinzTheo Wagner
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
international journal of innovation management
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.572
H-Index - 44
eISSN - 1757-5877
pISSN - 1363-9196
DOI - 10.1142/s1363919621500663
Subject(s) - perspective (graphical) , knowledge management , business , innovation management , quality (philosophy) , open innovation , marketing , computer science , philosophy , epistemology , artificial intelligence
Innovation champions often play a pivotal role in facilitating new ideas and technology-based innovations within organisations. The rise of digital technology has led to radical changes in the nature of innovation and calls for an assessment of existing knowledge on innovation champions’ activities and their influence on organisations and networks. This paper provides a systematic, interdisciplinary literature review on innovation champions from an individual and organisational perspective. Based on a search of 149 high-quality journals and conference proceedings, we identified 92 articles as relevant and synthesised prior knowledge on innovation champions. We find that, whereas innovation champions’ activities have been explored in detail, research on innovation champions’ influence, especially on networks, has been limited. Furthermore, we identify research gaps with respect to differences in innovation champions’ activities at distinct stages of the innovation lifecycle and the formation of innovation champions’ networks.