Capturing innovation opportunities: Learning from growth leaders

Abstract

Firms that capture the benefits of innovation opportunities ahead of their rivals achieve superior rates of organic growth. These growth leaders don't wait for opportunities to appear before reacting. Instead, they systematically search for opportunities to select for development. Qualitative case analyses of four growth leaders found that each used two types of heuristics or rules of thumb while capturing innovation opportunities. Their top‐down strategy heuristics were revealed with a wide‐spectrum framework that reimagined and stretched each dimension of their strategy. Growth leaders also used bottom‐up process heuristics to routinize and share their approaches to capturing innovation opportunities throughout their organization. These heuristics are a useful lens for studying innovation practices and suggest fruitful avenues for further research.