How can innovators understand if their idea is worth developing and pursuing? In this course, we lay out a systematic process to make strategic decisions about innovative product or services that will help entrepreneurs, managers and innovators to avoid common pitfalls. We teach students to assess the feasibility of an innovative idea through problem-framing techniques and rigorous data analysis labelled ‘a scientific approach’. The course is highly interactive and includes exercises and real-world applications. We will also show the implications of a scientific approach to innovation management through a wide range of examples and case studies.
This video is part of a project that has received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (Grant agreement No. 101021061)
We provide a general discussion of innovation as problem-solving and we link the discuss the building blocks of the scientific approach to innovation decisions – from how to formulate the problem, to how to formulate the hypotheses and the theory, and how to test them. The whole discussion will be framed and applied to concrete managerial problems, including a discussion of the specific managerial tools that facilitate the application of a scientific approach to innovation management.
Operation efficiency vs strategic efficiency•3 minutes
What data can and cannot do•4 minutes
Strategic efficiency•5 minutes
What does the scientific approach do: the Galilean manager•6 minutes
Inkdome case•6 minutes
What is innovation•7 minutes
The structure of the innovation decision•16 minutes
Risk and Uncertainty•11 minutes
Type I and type II errors in innovation decisions•7 minutes
Interactive tour of the Museum of Failure•4 minutes
Antecedents of the Scientific Approach•9 minutes
The Building Blocks: THEED•4 minutes
Formulate and apply theories to managerial problems•11 minutes
Tools: business model canvas and other tools•8 minutes
3 readings•Total 30 minutes
Readings & Videos•10 minutes
Recap slides•10 minutes
Background material (extended slides)•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 10 minutes
Week 1•10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
So much data, so little analysis...•10 minutes
THEORY AND DATA FOR INNOVATION MANAGEMENT
Module 2•4 hours to complete
Module details
We provide more details about the scientific approach and we introduce probabilities to understand how and why certain decisions lead to some outcomes instead of others and how to make better decisions. We also focus on how to formulate and test hypotheses in practice, and how to interpret these tests. We finally discuss how to design and run experiments.
NB: some videos may contain a downloadable database; please, download it and follow the in-video instructions
Conditional probabilities and the Bayes Theorem•8 minutes
The Scientific Approach: Theory and Mechanisms•11 minutes
Using the organization to set the decision rule•7 minutes
The Scientific Approach: summary and its use in practice•9 minutes
How to derive hypotheses from a theory•6 minutes
Hypotheses and their context [p values don’t always matter]•6 minutes
Cases•4 minutes
Design and logic of hypothesis testing (download the attached datasets)•12 minutes
The use of experiments in innovation management•11 minutes
Randomized Control Trials•8 minutes
Split and multivariate tests•12 minutes
Quasi Experimental Design•6 minutes
Innovation metrics•11 minutes
Metrics validity and reliability•5 minutes
Metrics validity•7 minutes
Metrics reliability•8 minutes
3 readings•Total 30 minutes
Readings & Videos•10 minutes
Recap slides•10 minutes
Background material (extended slides)•10 minutes
3 assignments•Total 40 minutes
Exercise 1•15 minutes
Exercise 2•15 minutes
Week 2•10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Barriers to the adoption of a scientific approach to innovation management•10 minutes
DATA ANALYSIS
Module 3•2 hours to complete
Module details
We cover the basics of data analysis, beginning with the distinction between correlation and causality in the analysis of data. We also teach how to make predictions using regression analysis and link these methods to the scientific approach, showing what role these analyses play, how they help to make scientific decisions and why.
We complement this with real examples of companies using data to make innovation decisions. We close by discussing how to interpret these analyses and results critically to make sure we understand what we really learn from the analyses and when, how and why we should interpret our results cautiously and critically.
What's included
8 videos3 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Show info about module content
8 videos•Total 63 minutes
Correlation vs causality•9 minutes
Regression analysis: Theory•12 minutes
Regression analysis: Application•10 minutes
Interview with Mimoto: paving the way for electric mobility using a scientific approach•9 minutes
Interview with Eni Gas and Power: leveraging big data to uncover customer preferences•8 minutes
Using data to answer important questions at Google•4 minutes
How firms and startups can gather and analyze data to test hypotheses•6 minutes
Reflection critical evaluation•5 minutes
3 readings•Total 30 minutes
Readings & Videos•10 minutes
Recap slides•10 minutes
Background material (extended slides)•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 10 minutes
Week 3•10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Reflecting on uncertainty•10 minutes
ADVANCED TOOLS FOR INNOVATION MANAGEMENT DECISIONS
Module 4•2 hours to complete
Module details
This is s a more advanced part in which we discuss causality and provide the students with some broad exposure to big data and machine learning, and we discuss what they can do for managerial decisions.We provide a general wrap-up and conclusion of the course, including a discussion of when the scientific approach is most appropriate or has limitations. This helps to see when to apply it, or when to apply other approaches, including our own gut feelings.
NB: some videos may contain a downloadable database; please, download it and follow the in-video instructions
What's included
7 videos3 readings1 assignment1 discussion prompt
Show info about module content
7 videos•Total 53 minutes
Difference-in-difference approach: Theory (download the attached datasets)•10 minutes
Difference-in-difference approach: Examples (download the attached datasets)•10 minutes
Instrumental variables: Theory (download the attached datasets)•9 minutes
Instrumental variables: Examples (download the attached datasets)•5 minutes
Data science vs causal links•4 minutes
Machine learning for innovation management decisions•6 minutes
Summary, conclusions, limitations of the scientific approach•9 minutes
3 readings•Total 30 minutes
Readings & Videos•10 minutes
Recap slides•10 minutes
Background material (extended slides)•10 minutes
1 assignment•Total 10 minutes
Week 4•10 minutes
1 discussion prompt•Total 10 minutes
Discussing type 1 and type 2 errors•10 minutes
FINAL PROJECT
Module 5•4 hours to complete
Module details
What's included
1 peer review
Show info about module content
1 peer review•Total 240 minutes
A Scientific Approach to Innovation Management - Final project•240 minutes
Instructors
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Our ambition is to develop students' potential and foster knowledge in Business, Economics and Law through innovative learning and research activities in a multicultural environment. Bocconi is a community that constantly innovates teaching and learning technologies and that strongly believes in the power of life-long learning and networking.
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