Case study on Innovation and competition in the knowledge economy

Case study on Innovation and competition in the knowledge economy

Discipline:
Management

Type of service:
Case Study

Spacing:
Double spacing

Paper format:
Harvard

Number of pages:
10 pages

Number of sources:
30 sources

Paper detalis:

The case study must be no longer than 3000 words (+/- 10%) excluding tables, graphs and bibliography.

This assignment requires you to write a case study on business innovation and competition: focusing on a company of your choice, write a case study articulating the company’s approach to innovation and how innovation helps the company to remain competitive. Use some of the theories and models that we have studied in the module in order to interpret the evidence from your case study. Discuss what you have learned from applying these theories and models to the understanding of the company’s approach to innovation and of how it uses innovation in order to compete. The case can be supported by evidence collected from secondary sources: academic literature, company reports, market intelligence, databases (such as patent databases, company databases etc.)

Select a company for which reliable information is available, for example because:
· There are already academic case studies written on that company’s innovation and business/competitive strategies, that you can reference
· There are public company reports can be easily accessed (a good database on which to search for company reports and general company information such as press releases and articles from the trade press is NexisLexis)

Helpful hints on how to write your case:
Provide a short general introduction that describes:
· The company’s sector of operation, and the nature of the innovation processes in the industry
· The company’s main economic activity and key economic data (size in terms of number of employees, turnover, location and main organizational structure if possible)
Describe the company’s approach to innovation and how innovation helps the company to remain competitive, for example by exploring:
· What resources are they dedicating to innovation?
· Where do they source their ideas for innovation?
· How do they organize their innovation processes?
· What kind of innovation outputs do they generate (patents, new products, new processes)?
· How do they protect their innovations from imitation?
· How do they use innovation in order to enter or create new markets?
Analyse the company’s approach to innovation and competition:
· What theories and models presented in the course help explain:
· Why do they adopt their approach to innovation? What are the industry/market/firm-specific factors that drive their approach to innovation?
· Why do they choose specific competitive strategies?

Using theories and models to interpret the evidence is very important: do not just describe the company’s approach to innovation and competition, but analyse it in light of the literature that we have explored in the module.