Emerging Lessons from Industry on How to Make Radical Innovation Sustainable

This paper explores radical innovation in industrial firms in the DACH region to help identify success factors via an exploratory study. The underpinning assumption is that for real sustainability, firms must innovate for the long-term and deliver ongoing incremental innovation. The challenge is that different approaches are needed to be successful in both forms. In our study, we interview over 100 senior managers through a Delphi process to gain insights. We identify seven barriers and the cause of the obstacles, and we also recognise seven lessons that improve the sustainability of radical innovation. The synthesis of the work is that firms must become learning organisations and that they need to consider the behavioural aspects of management, the necessary adaptability of the process, and the long-term funding aspect of radical innovation.