Design Research in Innovation Management: a pragmatic and human‐centered approach

This article outlines a pragmatic and human‐centered Design Research approach in Innovation Management. This research approach is of particular relevance when investigating Innovation Management under conditions of high uncertainty associated with changing environments and the complexity of transforming organizational architectures and business models. Under conditions of high uncertainty and complexity, research approaches that reduce complexity to specific factors are unsuitable. In contrast, Design Research in Innovation Management permits investigating Innovation Management under these conditions as it enables examining Innovation Management interventions and their impact within real‐world messiness. Design Research in Innovation Management empirically examines if the designed intervention provides a satisfactory and meaningful Innovation Management solution. This article provides a guide on how to examine Innovation Management interventions and how to generate practical knowledge. This practical knowledge enables practitioners to take action to facilitate innovation, and the approach allows viewing Innovation Management as a design practice. The outlined approach provides a new way to investigate and expand the discourse in the Innovation Management literature by developing practical knowledge in addition to theories and conceptual models.