Sustainability-orientated innovation projects
Sustainability-orientated innovation projects
The successful design of sustainability-orientated innovation projects can be used to motivate employees for the topic of sustainability in the long term and to initiate a long-term sustainability strategy in brick-and-mortar retail SMEs (from project to strategy).
Effective management of innovation projects must structure and guide the innovation process, but at the same time be flexible enough to give the actors involved in the innovation process room for manoeuvre. Farr, Sin & Tesluk (2003) provide a suitable approach for this, dividing the innovation process into four phases:
A central objective of the InnoNE pilot project is to work together with twelve SMEs in the bricks-and-mortar retail sector from the Weser-Ems and Elbe-Weser regions to successfully organise innovation projects that can be assigned to at least one of the sustainability-oriented fields of action in the retail sector. To this end, innovation teams are set up in the SMEs to ensure that all stakeholders relevant to the innovation projects are involved. In addition, the formation of innovation teams offers numerous other advantages, such as increased efficiency through the division of labour, increased opportunities for the successful realisation of innovations by bringing together the necessary different skills and expertise, increased flexibility for adapting to new circumstances by bringing in different skills and increased creativity and decision-making quality through multi-perspectivity.