Book chapter: Activities and challenges in environmental scanning
Prof. Dr. Carolin Durst, Scientific Director at ITONICS, together with Fabian Wiser, Scientific Assistant at TU Braunschweig, and Philipp Maron, Analyst at a technology company, has published a book article on “Activities and Challenges in Environmental Scanning“. The book “Case Studies on Technology & Innovation Management” (original: „Fallstudien zum Technologie- & Innovationsmanagement“) is intended to enable students in particular, but also innovation managers, to learn in a clear and practice-oriented way in the field of technology and innovation management on the basis of mostly local examples and real problems.
About the chapter:
NEXT is a technology company with over 80,000 employees and one of the world’s leading companies in its sector. In order to guarantee a competitive advantage and to ensure survival, NEXT’s innovation management operates four essential environment scanning activities: “1) trend management to create a broad knowledge base; 2) observation of competitors for regular performance comparison; 3) networking to exchange information with customers and direct competitors; 4) carrying out so-called deep dives for in-depth research into trends and technologies”.
In the case study, these four activities are examined in detail and challenges are identified in carrying out a successful environment scanning. In the end, the reader is asked nine questions including hints for solutions for a critical examination of the presented case study.
Highlights:
- Practice-oriented case study in innovation management of a B2B technology company
- Description of four central environment scanning activities: (1) trend management, (2) competitor monitoring, (3) networking & (4) deep dives.
- Nine questions and problems with solution hints.
Acknowledgments:
This contribution was created within the framework of the research project RADAR (Datengetriebenes UmfeldScanning für die Entscheidungen von morgen), which is funded by the BMBF under the number 02K16C190.
