Collaborative innovation in Smart Networks - a methods perspective

Innovation management methods have been subject to extensive research during the last decades, many of which have found their way to application in practice. However, innovation management methods are still predominantly used within company boundaries, although knowledge contributions of external business partners could often boost the benefits of applying these methods. Smart Networks, focusing on Organizational Networking, Knowledge Networking and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Networking, offer an approach for the collaborative, inter-enterprise implementation of such methods. This paper presents an engineering approach for how innovation management methods can be applied collaboratively within this specific form of enterprise networking. An approach to implement innovation management methods with help of ICT applications is highlighted. Exemplarily, an implementation of the Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) method is illustrated.