Abstract
Faculty in business and engineering schools are increasingly focused on teaching the fundamentals of the innovation process to students at all levels. There has been a recent embrace of teaching the innovation process through a user-centered “design thinking” methodology and on experiential “making” activities within interdisciplinary teams. Although valuable as part of an innovation curriculum, a focus on only one set of tools and methods such as design thinking may detract from other valuable approaches, thereby limiting the full range of incremental to radical innovation outcomes that students need to learn to be effective innovation leaders. In this essay we review pedagogy related to teaching innovation processes, and we categorize approaches into four modes depending on teaching method (experiential or analytical) and participant context (disciplinary or interdisciplinary). We propose that in order to teach innovation effectively, students need to be exposed to all four modes, where learning opportunities differ. We illustrate our points drawing from courses among multiple settings, and we provide implications for curriculum design that will help faculty to innovate how they teach innovation.
Highlights
Teaching the fundamentals of an innovation process— how to develop and introduce new products, services, and business models—has become widespread in business schools (Dyer et al 2009, Thursby et al 2009)
Valuable as part of an innovation curriculum, a focus on only one set of tools and methods such as design thinking may detract from other valuable approaches, thereby limiting the full range of incremental to radical innovation outcomes that students need to learn to be effective innovation leaders
In this essay we review pedagogy related to teaching innovation processes, and we categorize approaches into four modes depending on teaching method and participant context
Summary
Teaching the fundamentals of an innovation process— how to develop and introduce new products, services, and business models—has become widespread in business schools (Dyer et al 2009, Thursby et al 2009). Research over the last 30 years has introduced a number of ways to envision how innovation comes about and its effect, with labels such as architectural innovation, disruptive innovation, and business model innovation (Henderson and Clark 1990, Christensen 1997, Pisano, 2015) These different types of innovation build on a fundamental dichotomy that spans from more incremental to more radical innovation. The second dimension we highlight is focused on the participant context, and whether learning takes place in a disciplinary or interdisciplinary environment These two dimensions lead to four distinct modes to teaching innovation, which we will review in turn. Rather than seek out one approach to providing an innovation course, such as one dedicated to design thinking, faculty should consider how all four modes have a place in a comprehensive curriculum devoted to teaching and learning the innovation process
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary 
Published Version (
Free)
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call