Front end of innovation models: similarities, differences and research perspectives

The front end of innovation is the first sub-process of the innovation process. This sub-process includes the activities performed before the proposal and the adoption of a concept to be developed and implemented. This area has received little attention from academia and organizations; therefore, because organizations can substantially benefit from the optimization and improvement of the front end of innovation, the importance of studies that seek to understand the organization of this body of literature is justified. Thus, this paper aids in the development of theoretical concepts and fills the gaps observed in the existing research. In this sense, this paper reports the results of a study based on a survey and analyzes the literature related to the front end of innovation and, in particular, of this sub-process model. It also proposes a set of assumptions as the basis for the theoretical and empirical development of the subject. After a literature search was conducted in four electronic databases, 268 publications were identified, of which eight included front end of innovation models that were considered relevant for analysis. These models are compared based on some content analysis criteria of the articles. From this analysis, research perspectives are suggested, and points that require theoretical approaches are identified.

Innovation; Front end of innovation; Innovation management; Literature review