Strategy- and Innovation Work in Company Boards - Development of a Framework for Sustainable Value Creation

Purpose and goal

The overall aim of the project is to investigate how company boards combine strategy and innovation in their work. More specifically, the study aims to map what practices boards use to handle questions related to strategy and innovation, and how these activities relate to each other. Moreover, collaboration forms, communication and roles between boards and top management teams are investigated to see how these aspects influence an integrated and cohesive strategy and innovation work.

Expected results and effects

The framework and the new ways of working that are developed will be distributed and put to use in different ways. Besides publications in scientific journals and direct effects at participating companies the new knowledge will benefit other organizations through the development of consultancy- and training materials. Furthermore, the new knowledge will be used to develop new modules for board evaluation tools. By including an investigation module on innovation, innovation weaknesses and improvement potential will be identified in these evaluations.

Planned approach and implementation

The project uses a broad portfolio of investigation methods to capture overall trends and development patterns concerning boards´ combined strategy- and innovation work. In order to map practices and challenges interview studies, workshops and surveys are performed. The partner companies are involved in three steps: (1) interviews to identify the companies´ problems related to strategy, innovation and sustained value creation, (2) workshops to identify improvement areas, and (3) follow-up and evaluation of implemented changes.