Strategic innovation management: A cross-functional vision to be materialised

On one hand, innovation in business is a crucial factor for successful implementation of business policies and strategies. On the other hand, cross-functional business innovation has received much interest among researchers and practitioners, because of its effective and innovative contribution, based on diverse business functional areas to the overall innovation management process of a business firm. A concise literature review on the relevant topics illustrates the significance of cross-functional innovation in the contemporary business innovation management process; however, the review simultaneously accentuates the lack of current research on cross-functional business innovation, in order to fully exploit the diverse cross-functional innovation perspectives for proactively planning, implementing and managing the strategic innovation management process in business. Following this background, this chapter also proposes a cross-functional strategic innovation management vision, and provides an overview on the rest of the chapters of this book, in order to portray how the different chapters of this book develop strategic innovation management insights, based on diverse business function-specific issues and arguments, with an aim to propose and justify an integrated cross-functional model of strategic innovation management in business.