Dealing with Uncertainty in Innovation Management

Innovation Management is characterised by great uncertainties, which pose substantial challenges for organisations. In the course of the current paper, a qualitative study was conducted as part of a benchmarking procedure. Thereby a comprehensive overview of many different activities and methods regarding uncertainty handling in innovation management has been identified. The main findings of this paper can be considered as best practices in systematically reducing uncertainty in innovation management by target-oriented application of appropriate methods, tools and techniques. In many cases, the companies apply long-proven and established methods like competition analysis or the lead user approach, product roadmaps or portfolios were more rarely mentioned. Finally, theoretical and practical implications of our study are discussed.