mmunications Ecosystem Total Innovation Management Portfolio Innovation Management Single Technological Innovation Evolutionary level Figure 12.5 Evolution of innovation management. Reproduced with permission from Gang et al. © 2003 IEEE 12.5.1 Evolution of Innovation Management Innovation Management in simple terms can be understood as systematic planning, conversion and control and implementation of ideas in the organizations. The practice of innovation management has gone through two stages and can be considered to be present in the third stage as shown in Figure 12.5 [14]. 12.5.1.1 Stage 1: Single Product/Technology based Innovation Management (Conventional) The first stage mainly focuses on the technological dimensions of the innovation, namely product innovation or process innovation. The stage appeared in the 1970s, concentrated on product innovation first, then paid attention to process innovation, and finally reaches a balance between the two. The well- known U/A paradigm (Utterback and Abernathy, 1976) is just an example of this stage. The activities only depended on the R&D function and R&D people, other sources of innovation were generally ignored. The key highlights of this practice are: Limits eyes on single innovation Focuses on Product Innovation Too much emphasis on radical innovation and technological innovation R&D ignores collaboration with other departments No emphasis on non-tech innovative performance. 12.5.1.2 Stage 2: Portfolio Innovation Management The portfolio management started in the mid 1980s and lasted till the late 1990s as shown in Figure 12.6. At first this stage only concentrated on product innovation and then later started to focus on process innovation. Thus, realizing the benefits of technological innovation, which is the key to winning sustainable competitive advantage. At the same time it is important to have a balance between product innovation and process innovation. Any imbalance in technology innovation could result in defeat in the world competition. The key highlight