Management of Innovation and Product Development

This textbook provides a unique and original understanding on innovation and on product design and development, and on their tight interconnections. It presents an integrated and holistic perspective on these two fields, allowing readers to understand how the phenomenon of innovation occurs – and must be managed – at different and interacting levels, from corporate strategy to design decision-making.

This book explores these themes in a scientifically rigorous manner, associating academic findings with examples from business. It provides readers with the conceptual and decision-making tools required to understand and manage the process of innovation at different levels, from the analysis of industry-wide phenomena to the formulation of a strategy, and from the planning of operations to the management of technical choices. Chapters cover innovation as an economic and social phenomenon, the formulation of innovation strategy, the management of product development processes and projects and the technical design of products and services. Offering an invaluable resource to postgraduate students in economics, management and engineering, this book is also intended for managers and entrepreneurs.

The book's topics are covered by associating academic findings with examples from business. For this new second edition of the book, case studies are made available through a companion LinkedIn page that is continuously updated by authors and by readers, while pointers to complementary content available on the internet are provided throughout the text.

Marco Cantamessa is a professor of Management of Innovation and Product Development at the Department of Management and Production Engineering of Politecnico di Torino. He has amply published in the fields of innovation management and engineering design, and has been a founding member of The Design Society, serving on its Board of Management and on its Advisory Board. He currently is Associate Editor of Design Science, has served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Engineering Design, and on the Scientific Boards of a number of international conferences. His professional experience in innovation includes a variety of roles, such as President and CEO of I3P, one of the leading European university incubators, President of PNICube, the Italian association of university incubators, and Chairman of the Board of Neva Finventures, the corporate venturing arm of the Intesa Sanpaolo bank. He currently is Chairman of the Board of CVA, one of the leading Italian renewable energy companies.

Francesca Montagna, Ph.D, is associate professor at Politecnico di Torino, Department of Management and Production Engineering, where she teaches Management of Innovation and Product Development. She teaches also at MBA programs and actively collaborates in educational programs for managers, entrepreneurs and policy makers. Research topics range from Management of Innovation and Engineering Design to Decision Making. These themes are deepened through innovation projects in the private and public sector. She serves on the Advisory Board of the Design Society, has authored or co-authored diverse academic papers and usually serves as reviewer for international conferences and academic journals, such as RED and IJPR. She has often served as expert project evaluator for funding agencies at national and international level.