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Corporate Innovation Activism In A Multidivisional Firm: Rationale, Genesis, Evolution, Zdenek Necas

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Various streams of foundational management literatures imply that corporate managers can play a role in the management of intra-organizational innovation processes. However, management scholars have largely assumed that corporate managers do not become actively involved in the management of intra-organizational innovation processes occurring within multidivisional firms. This assumption contrasts with the importance given in the management literature to innovation as an enabler of organizational long-term survival. To address this contrast, my dissertation explores why and how corporate managers adopt an active approach to the management of intra-organizational innovation processes in complex multidivisional firms.

In the first paper, I map extant …