Companies
increasingly open up towards external sources to inspire and frame innovation.
We find that technology as a driver of innovation loses importance in favor of
culture, e.g. where lifestyle aspects dominate over the technological features
in a product’s appearance. Lifestyles and other socio-cultural developments and
trends often emerge at the fringes of society in communities and sub-cultures
like avant garde circles of artists.
Detecting and translating upcoming socio-cultural developments as a source for
innovation is difficult because this belongs to so-called tacit knowledge -
knowledge that is hard to grasp and cannot simply be written down. Therefore,
intermediaries play a significant role for companies to make use of
socio-cultural resources in their early innovation process (the front end of
innovation), gaining competitive advantage in increasingly dynamic market
environments.
Showing posts with label culturedriven. Show all posts
Showing posts with label culturedriven. Show all posts
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
Monday, March 5, 2012
A Cultural Quest - Case Study on Alessi and Cultural Resources
Davide Ravasi and Elena Dapliaz, with Violina Rindova wrote an article for Organization Science about the use of cultural
resources in strategy formation and change in a case study of Italian
manufacturer of household products, Alessi. Over more than three decades,
Alessi incorporated cultural resources from different registers like
anthropology, psychoanalysis, arts, or crafts. For example, craft techniques
were reintroduced in the production process or workshops with social scientists,
informed employees about psychoanalytical theories about the effect of objects
form on individuals. Through cultural repertoire enrichment and identity
redefinition, Alessi developed new unconventional strategies and strategic
versatility that led to a pioneering role in its industry and unlocking of new
markets. Rindova et al. (2011) show how cultural resources are used for the
purpose of substantive use, as productive means to develop new strategies of
actions. This has to be differentiated from the rhetorical use of cultural
resources as in advertising through verbal signs, promoted through institutions
like media and critics.
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