Abstract
PurposeMastering innovation in highly regulated markets might require companies to overcome significant barriers. Rules, laws and limitations on social, economic and institutional dimensions can hinder the ability of a company to transfer knowledge within and across organizational boundaries. However, as recent research in innovation management increasingly advocates user involvement and early understanding of user needs as best practices, the inability to freely interact with customers due to highly regulated market restrictions can hinder the company’s capability to innovate. Hence, this paper aims to shed light on how an emerging managerial approach, such as Design Sprint, can support companies operating in highly regulated markets to overcome user involvement limitations and boost human-centered innovation.Design/methodology/approachThis paper sheds light on how to boost innovation in a highly regulated market by leveraging an in-depth case study. The study investigates the use of the Design Sprint approach adopted by the pharmaceutical multinational Johnson & Johnson to revise the way its R&D department orchestrates the new product development process, overcoming the user involvement challenges of highly regulated markets.FindingsIn analyzing six different projects undertaken in the past two years, the findings illustrate three microfoundational dimensions of the Design Sprint approach in highly regulated markets, the so-called 3T model: team, time and tools. Indeed, deploying the Design Sprint in a highly regulated market has proven that being able to experiment in the early stages, building rough prototypes in real-time and openly collaborating with partners is crucial to boost innovation and anticipate constraints.Originality/valueThe paper sheds light on the Design Sprint approach by initially grounding an emerging managerial approach on organizational and management theory, leveraging the lens of microfoundations. In doing so, this study suggests how Design Sprint is based on the pillars of experimentation, knowledge transfer and co-creation usually neglected in highly regulated markets where user involvement is challenging. Finally, this study discloses the importance of using a design-based methodology in fostering innovation in highly regulated markets.
Highlights
IntroductionTechnical, political, market and social reasons are just some of the many that can constrain the innovativeness of companies (Foxon and Pearson, 2008; Madrid-Guijarro et al, 2009)
Making innovation happen is always difficult (Barczak et al, 2009)
Our study shows the relevance of the individual, process and structure dimensions, the microfoundations of innovation (Felin et al, 2012), to favor more user-centered innovation in highly regulated markets by clarifying how Johnson and Johnson (J&J), by adopting Design Sprint, was able to interact differently with end users while complying with the regulations
Summary
Technical, political, market and social reasons are just some of the many that can constrain the innovativeness of companies (Foxon and Pearson, 2008; Madrid-Guijarro et al, 2009). Regulations can be linked to different sources, economic, social and institutional, depending on whether they are related to price, to consumer safety or to laws (Blind, 2016; Marino et al, 2019). These are just examples of the types of regulation that influence our markets and companies operating in them. In a j j PAGE 88 JOURNAL OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT VOL. 25 NO. 11 2021, pp. 88-104, Emerald Publishing Limited, ISSN 1367-3270
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