In August of 2016, a group of five students studying Information Systems from DePaul University traveled to Silicon Valley to research innovation. During our research trip, we visited eleven companies and met with various people, ranging from product professionals to CEOs and founders to discuss their approach towards innovation. Some of the topics that were covered during our discussions was how they created teams and the process they used to innovate.
Professor Dr. Olayele Adelakun proposed a theoretical framework for innovation (which is represented by the image below):
This page documents our findings from the trip in relation to this framework.
Each section of the framework has been examined and our findings can be read by clicking the button to view the outcomes of our research. We will briefly describe each section of the framework.
- Market Position: describes the demographic information about the company and their target market
- Business Strategy: covers their market strategy
- Product and Services: provides an overview on the companies main products and/or services
- Innovation Investment: section details their approach to investing in innovation, how they support innovation through resource allocation
- Process Innovation: details the innovation process, as well as development processes used to turn innovative ideas into working software
- Context for Innovation: describes how innovation is fostered with each company
- Team Creativity and Challenges: investigates the culture of innovative companies, and how these companies sustain that culture
- Innovation Impact and Metrics: looks at the overall impact innovation has had on these companies