Innovation as a strategy in project management.

Abstract

The concept of strategic innovation has evolved nowadays into a ‘hot topic’. This is, due to its importance and the impacts the recent economic downturn had on organisations, enforcing them to explore its adoption as a way out. Still, the evident competitive advantages gained by firms that implement different innovative management approaches are not met in combination within current literature, whereas their aid to organisations in overcoming the recent recession is surface explored. Thus, this study aims to identify the aforementioned concept, explore its significance for European manufacturing organisations, evaluate the combined competitive advantages gained by firms, and analyse their assistance to companies in overcoming the recent economic crisis. For this reason, a literature review has been deployed analysing in-depth the concept of innovation as a strategy, along with its significance for firms. Moreover, a quantitative method of research was adopted consisting of questionnaires, distributed to European organisations, using techniques like hand by hand, emails and social media. This resulted in a sample of 54 managers, analysed using SPSS and Excel. In this way, this research’s effort in evaluating the competitive advantages gained by the combined adoption of Lean, 6 Sigma, BSC, and BIM, as well as their aid in overcoming the recession, was assisted by experienced managers involved in the decision making policy of the firms they work for. According to the study’s findings, the vast majority of European organisations adopt innovation within their activities, highlighting its significance. Moreover, economic and time benefits have been identified as the main gains of the combined usage of Lean, 6 Sigma and BSC, as BIM’s adoption by the manufacturing industry was validated slow and its beneficial aid to firms couldn’t be effectively assessed. Still, the aforementioned benefits were also evident after the economic crisis, assisted additionally by organisational gains and sustainability. Thus, all objectives have been met, leading to an overall fulfilment of this study’s primary aim.