A Competence-Based Model of Initiatives for Innovations

The initiation of the innovation process has recently produced increased interest among the new product development scholars. While most extant research has focused on the management of opportunity recognition, of the development of new product concepts and of concept selection, little research has examined the initiative emergence process. With this article the authors intend to shed some light on the starting point of initiative formation by outlining a structured and comprehensive concept of the initiative emergence process; investigating individual competences facilitating initiative emergence, including task-related, action-related and cognitive competences; and developing a competence-based model for helping explain the occurrence of initiatives. For future research, the authors develop propositions on the impact that different competency constellations have on initiatives along their emergence process, and on factors that determine how to support competences for initiatives adequately.