MANAGERIAL WORK IN CORPORATE INNOVATION: FIELDS OF WORK AND FRONTIERS OF CONTROL

In modern corporations, internal R&D is considered an important source of new products and, therefore, a major mechanism of new business generation. Innovation studies report, however, that only a small fraction of all R&D projects are successful. They recognise that the quality of management is a key factor in predicting the outcome of innovation processes. In spite of this consensus, only a few empirical studies have described how managers from various organisational positions jointly produce certain innovative outcomes in certain industries and corporate contexts (Maidique 1980, Burgelman & Sayles 1986).