Discuss essay question

Product success is not a reliable indicator of company strength. Critically discuss.

This question focuses on the lectures that covered aspects of innovation strategy. One of the key issues here is the debate between market-focused and competence-focused approaches. Relevant references could include:

Tidd, J. and Bessant, J. (2013) Managing Innovation: Integrating Technological, Market and Organisational Change, 5th ed. Chichester: Wiley. (For general background – particularly the critique of Porter)

Freeman, C. and Soete, L. (1997) The Economics of Industrial Innovation (Third Edition), London: Routledge

Porter, E. M. (1985) Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance, New York: Free Press. (Chapter on Innovation)

Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C.K. (1991), "Corporate Imagination and Expeditionary Marketing," Harvard Business Review, 69: 81-92.

Hamel, G. and Prahalad, C. K. (1994) Competing for the Future, Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Press.

Prahalad, C.K. and Hamel, G. (1990) The core competence of the corporation, Harvard Business Review, 68, 3, 79–91

Slater, S.F. and Narver, J.C. (1995) Market orientation and the learning organization. Journal of Marketing, 59(3): 63-74

Teece, D. and Pisano, G. (1994) The dynamic capabilities of firms: an introduction, Industrial and Corporate Change, 3 (3).

Teece, D.J., Pisano, G., and Shuen, A. (1997) Strategic Management Journal, 18:7, 509-533

Metcalfe, J. and Boden, M. (1992) Evolutionary epistemology and the nature of technology strategy, in Coombs, R., Saviotti, P. and Walsh, V. (eds) Technological Change and Company Strategies: Economic and Sociological Perspectives, London: Academic Press.

Grant, R. M. (1991) 'The resource-based theory of competitive advantage: implications for strategy formulation’, California Management Review, 114–35

Grant, R. M. (2002) Contemporary Strategy Analysis, 4th edn, Oxford, Blackwell.

Tripsas, M. and Gavetti, G., 2000. Capabilities, Cognition, and Inertia: Evidence from Digital Imaging. Strategic Management Journal, 21: 1147-1161

McGrath, R. (2013) The End of Competitive Advantage: How to Keep Your Strategy Moving as Fast as Your Business. Boston, MA, Harvard Business Review Press

Kraaijenbrink, J., Spender, J-C., and Groen, A.J. (2010) The Resource-Based View: A Review and Assessment of its Critiques, Journal of Management, 36 (1): 349-372