Factors conditioning incumbent firms’ implementation of radical innovations : A systematic literature review

• Meeting the urgent climate challenge will require that incumbent firms implementinnovations, of which some are radical compared to firms’ competence-base or market solutions.To support this development, a thorough understanding of the prerequisites for implementationis needed. The body of literature on conditioning factors for incumbent firms’ innovationimplementation is vast and informative but also scattered in a diversity of fields, such asinnovation management, industrial dynamics and transition studies. Further, findings aresometimes contradictory. It is thus difficult to get a coherent understanding of which factorsinfluence implementation and how. We therefore set out to conduct a systematic literature reviewon factors influencing the propensity of incumbents to implement radical innovation. Our studyrevealed 8 firm-external factors related to the landscape pressure, the maturity of the innovationand related infrastructure as well as external network fit, and 11 firm-internal factors related tostructural conditions, responsive capacity and the internal alignment with the innovation. We alsofound extensive interdependence between these factors within and across the firm internal andexternal level. We thus conclude that reaching a thorough understanding of the prerequisites forimplementation requires simultaneously paying attention to a wide variety of conditioning factorson firm internal and external level, and their interconnectedness. @ 2022 The Authors.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Övrig annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Other Social Sciences not elsewhere specified (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

incumbents

radical innovation

implementation

literature review

industry

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