Innovation in the Metal Manufacturing Industry: Facilitating Innovation with Electronic Business Applications

Innovation is studied to great extent in many disciplines. Especially consumer focused innovation studies are popular. Inspired by this fact the purpose of this paper is to study the new product innovation process of a specialized metal manufacturer in Northern Europe. New product innovation process is depicted and specific focus is given to new technology development to create new products for existing customers. Theory purports that new product development and new technology development are separate stages. However, unlike in theory this paper suggests that management should focus on the entire innovation process to manage both ends (new product and technology development) of the process of innovation to encapsulate the totality of the phenomenon. Especially usage of electronic business applications to facilitate the process is suggested.