Title: Entrepreneurial activity for discontinuous innovation in established companies

Authors: Masamichi Ishii

Addresses: Faculty of Management, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business, 4-4 Sagamine Komenoki-cho, Nisshin-shi, Aichi 470-0193, Japan

Abstract: Previous research has discussed how to create discontinuous innovation (DI), which produces a breakthrough product, in established companies. A few studies have shown that the entrepreneurial activity is conducted to develop DI in established companies. However, these studies provided significantly different explanations of how the entrepreneurial activity is conducted. In other words, the understanding of the entrepreneurial activity remains insufficient. Previous research has discussed how to produce DI without sufficient understanding of the entrepreneurial activity. This study aims to fill this gap by conducting a multiple-case study on five DI projects. The results contribute to the literature in two ways. First, they enhance the understanding of the entrepreneurial activity to identify opportunities for DI in established companies. Second, they figure out the active role of top management to promote the entrepreneurial activity to develop DI.

Keywords: discontinuous innovation; radical innovation; disruptive innovation; entrepreneurship; corporate entrepreneurship; entrepreneurial opportunity; prior knowledge; idea generation; Japan; manufacturing.

DOI: 10.1504/IJBG.2023.132799

International Journal of Business and Globalisation, 2023 Vol.34 No.2, pp.204 - 218

Received: 23 Apr 2019
Accepted: 26 Feb 2020
Published online: 10 Aug 2023 *

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