Organizations can implement an innovation management system in order to address the multidimensional challenges they often have in their practical innovation work. Until the ISO 56002 standard was released in 2019, there was no international standard for the design of innovation management systems. The standard provides support as a framework and highlights important systems elements. We studied two early adopters that have used this international standard to design their innovation management systems. Based on the study findings, we devised a practical approach for framing the design of an innovation management system. The approach includes a set of steps and critical considerations that include understanding a company's innovation ambitions and direction, analyzing the systemic dimensions of the system (the elements and how they interconnect), and introducing a balanced set of control mechanisms.

Innovation in the food sector is needed. This study addresses how to support learning around systematic innovation management in smaller firms within seafood, part of the highly regulated food sector. A collaborative change project, with four SMEs, a science park, and a research institute, aiming at enhanced innovation capabilities within the SMEs, was studied. The project included direct interventions in terms of training, dialogues, and coaching related to systematic innovation management ‒ in order to facilitate blue innovation. Empirical data was gathered in interviews and reflective field observations. Crucial factors to consider were to enhance the understanding of the systemic nature of innovation management and utilize visualizations as well as an innovation vocabulary, preferably related to ISO 56000 and ISO 56002. Further, it is also important to include diverse learning activities, while also ensuring a closeness to the firm’s current situation, and to focus on the progress that occurred.

This paper examines an organization’s adoption of a standard based innovation management system (IMS) to systematize and lead its innovation efforts. The organization, a large public hospital, characterized as an early implementor of the standard based IMS approach to innovation management, was analyzed during a fouryear time span via a longitudinal study. The paper utilizes components of neo institutional theory as a lens to explain the empirical findings, adopting a legitimacy-as-a-process perspective to trace how the IMS system became a legitimate approach to innovation management, through institutional work. By analyzing the organization from its initial planning to its implementation of the system, the paper presents an order of legitimizing an innovation management system. 

An innovation strategy aims to provide guidance in terms of direction and prioritisation regarding innovation efforts. This study explores formulation and implementation of innovation strategy in the context of a case study of an organisation that explicitly deploys the guidance standard for innovation management systems ISO56002. Interviews were conducted and were analysed together with an abundance of company documentation, spanning seven years. The empirical results convey how intertwined the work on innovation strategy was with the formulation and implementation of the company’s innovation management system (based on ISO56002). The study addressed the call for more research on strategy implementation and showed the innovation strategy (part of the ISO 56002 Leadership element) influencing the other system elements within the innovation management system. Further, it is important to use a system of systems approach to integrate an Innovation Management System with other management systems. This may be achieved through ambidextrous leadership competences given that the management systems have with different purposes, properties and actions. Finally, as an innovation management system develops, it is important to adapt rather than over-optimise in order to for retain flexibility required to innovate.  

This chapter provides an illustration of how the support for innovation workhas been developed at Karolinska University Hospital. Karolinska is a largeuniversity hospital in Sweden that provides highly specialised healthcaretogether with research and education. The chapter presents a ‘journey’ spanningthe period 2011–2020 whose overall goal was to support innovation efforts at thehospital. During that time, different initiatives to achieve the goal were launched.These included establishing expertise in forming and leading innovationpartnerships; developing a portfolio of educational programmes for clinicalstaff regarding innovation management; utilising the opportunity to certify thehospital’s innovation management professionals; engaging in the developmentof ISO standards for innovation management; and designing and implementinga hospital-wide innovation management system. This journey is then reflectedupon, and the specific issues of adapting innovation management to a healthcarecontext and developing innovation management support in a hospital setting arediscussed. This all serves as input for how to address innovation management aswell as for future models of healthcare delivery.

ISO56002 ‒ a global standard for innovation management systems was published 2019 and empirical validation of using the standard is so far limited. This study investigates design and introduction of innovation management systems based on ISO56002 and explores the impact this brings to the studied organizations. 

Two organizations, a UK-based consultancy firm in engineering, and a Japan-based information and technology company, both explicitly utilizing ISO 56002 and considered as leading examples were studied. A qualitative approach was chosen, mainly based on interviews in order to open for elaborations on the emerging phenomenon of innovation management systems based on a standard. 

The study shows that the ISO56002 brought value to both organizations, despite them being in different sectors. The standard does not provide detail solutions, instead it is used as support to actively apply a systems approach to innovation covering strategic, structural, and cultural issues all together. Specifically, management functions are supported to address strategy and culture, including design structures for fencing space for exploration, risk-taking and experimentation. Critical features to enable this, such as appointing a core team with a long-term ambition, are identified and discussed. 

This chapter presents results from initial studies on personal certifications of innovation management professionals, drawing from a Swedish context. The results capture motivations for, as well as effects from, the certification process. They are discussed from the perspective of how this is relevant for developing and enhancing innovation leadership competencies. Increased knowledge, enhanced professional communication, and strengthened self-confidence related to innovation management were identified as outcomes for individuals pursuing the certifications. Further, this laid the ground for increased visibility, expanded network, and thus more opportunities to influence innovation work. An overarching theme appearing in the study is how a certification can contribute to strengthening the legitimacy of working with innovation management, and thus serve as an enabler for innovation management practice and subsequently innovation leadership. Effects from the certification that may be beneficial for successful innovation leadership include the opportunity for practitioners to articulate their own experiences and competencies, in addition to improving the impact of their efforts utilising innovation terminology. For organisations, knowledge of personal certification can be used both for recruitment and for development of existing personnel and their innovation leadership. Through a longer perspective, it can also contribute to decreasing the dependence on a few specific individuals and instead strengthen the long-term organisational innovation capabilities.

Early evidence supports standardised innovation management system(s) (SIMS) as an approach to achieve improved value for organisations. Mott MacDonald, a large multinational engineering, management and development consultancy is strengthening its innovation and social outcomes by implementing a SIMS based upon ISO 56002:2019. This case study was based on their UK operations, and explores early stage implementation phenomena. Data gathering included interviews and a small-sample questionnaire (purposive sampling). We identified how respondents perceived factors such as: ownership of the innovation work (at individual, unit, and group level); understanding the system and value gained from a systematic approach, benefits of a common innovation framework; and development in terms of enhanced abilities to “talk about” innovation, competency growth, and engagement in innovation activities. The findings provide insights for other organisations to further understand the effects of SIMS and opportunities for enhanced implementation and uptake.

This paper addresses the innovation strategy formulation in publicsector organizations. Specifically, it focuses on the innovation strategyformulation process, document output and the support ISO56000 innovationmanagement standards provide for such a formulation process. Therefore, thispaper presents a case study in a Swedish municipality formulating an innovationstrategy. As a result, the paper describes the two main innovation strategyformulation phases: the experimental pre-phase and the emergent strategy phasewith its sub-phases and the contributing actor-stakeholders. Furthermore, itreveals the areas where the innovation management standards supported theinnovation strategy formulation process and its output. Moreover, the paperillustrates the challenges the political-administrative nature of organizing in thepublic sector causes for innovation work. The paper contributes to the literatureon strategic management, especially public sector innovation managementliterature regarding innovation strategy planning and innovation managementstandard use in a municipal context. 

The significance of systems perspectives in addressing complex problems has been emphasized in literature. However, application of such perspectives in the field of innovation management has been relatively limited but is increasingly gaining attention. This study contributes to the advancement of knowledge in this field by presenting a novel approach for studying and measuring systemic aspects of innovation management approaches by introducing the concept of systemicity in an innovation management context. Systemicity encompasses how systemic a system is, thereby addressing important aspects that have not been taken into consideration previously. The empirical data, collected in semi-structured interviews with two established companies, were analyzed using a tentative framework developed in this study. The study suggests that the three system dimensions comprehensiveness, coherence and correspondence are suitable for capturing systemicity and can support in identifying strengths and areas for improvement, providing a more holistic perspective on the system's potential for fostering innovation. Further research is needed to explore practical implementation of the framework for researchers and practitioners, and to determine suitable levels of systemicity as this was not examined.