Operationalization of the corporate strategies for innovation development: Capabilities of technology roadmaps

Abstract

Goal: identify the key barriers hindering operationalization of the corporate innovation strategies (i. e. the transition from the adopted strategy to its implementation at the operational level) and define the capabilities of technology roadmaps (TRM) to overcome these barriers. Methodology: consists of two logically connected parts: 1) the comparative analysis of relevant international empirical research to identify the main issues of putting the agreed-upon corporate innovation strategies into action; 2) real case study analysis of TRMs application in the large corporate entities working as a tool to deal with the identified issues. Findings: identification and characterization of a core set of typical issues representing the most significant barriers to translate corporate innovation strategies into action; definition of the main advantages of TRMs as an effective tool for operationalization of corporate innovation strategies; the conclusions on the relevance of TRMs for developing and monitoring the programmes for innovation development of Russian companies with State participation. Originality and contribution of the authors: the novelty of the paper relates mainly to identification of significant potential and the main avenues for TRMs application in dealing with the “strategy-execution gap” in the context of innovation activities of large companies. From this perspective, it would be no less important to note that the key issues and mechanisms of integration between strategy and operationsrelated functionalities of TRMs are defined and specified.