Learning in product innovation processes: Managerial action on improving learning behaviour

Learning in and by organisations has been of great interest to practitioners and academics for a number of years now. However, publications on empirical research are few, especially in the context of product innovation.This thesis reports on research which was aimed at (a) effective managerial activities and decisions in stimulating learning behaviour by individuals and teams, and (b) barriers for learning in product innovation processes.Using data that were gathered in the ESPRIT project CIMA (Continuous Improvement in global product innovation MAnagement) - a co-operation between Italy, Ireland, Sweden, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia - it is shown that especially project management and control and human resource management are effective tools in stimulating individuals and teams to exhibit learning behaviour. Lack of resources is perceived to be the most frequent barrier. A culture that is not supportive of learning combined with a lack of commitment at both managerial level and operational level is also reported to hinder learning to a great extent.It appears from the data that an effective configuration of managerial activities for managing the product innovation process may be different from an effective configuration of levels for stimulating the learning process.