Enhancing innovation portfolio management: towards a pragmatic process-centric approach

Abstract

Innovation portfolio management has traditionally relied on formalised but executionfocused methods to support strategic prioritisation and resource allocation. However, existing approaches often fail to address the high levels of uncertainty, market ambiguity, and weak strategic definitions that dominate the fuzzy front end of innovation. Under such conditions, decision-makers require more resilient and exploratory approaches to portfolio design that enable future foresight, adaptability, and creativity, resulting in an innovation-driven portfolio of opportunities. Current research lacks a cohesive, step-bystep process for innovation portfolio management that supports an exploratory portfolio design to prioritise innovation initiatives. This dissertation addresses this gap by developing a pragmatic and process-centric model that integrates innovation methods, such as the theory of inventive problem-solving, quantum economic analysis, and open innovation, to support the dynamic planning, selection, and evaluation of innovation opportunities.

The research conceptualises and evaluates the combined application of these methods across various stages of portfolio development, using a qualitative research design supported by systematic literature reviews and case studies. The findings demonstrate that the theory of inventive problem-solving tools can be repurposed for application in portfolio-level decision-making, supporting strategic ideation and alignment, as well as technological foresight, thereby strengthening product-market and organisational fit under uncertainty. Second, quantum economic analysis and open innovation tools provide a systematic approach to evaluating product-market-organisation synergies, informing strategy selection without requiring extensive data. Thirdly, utilising generative artificial intelligence holds promise for portfolio management systems, highlighting its potential to offer significant speed advantages in this resource-intensive task. Ultimately, the proposed integrated approach provides a pragmatic way to identify high-value innovation opportunities, align them, and facilitate robust planning in early-stage innovation portfolios. The dissertation makes a novel theoretical and practical contribution by advancing a methodical integration of innovation methods that have traditionally been overlooked in portfolio management, thereby developing an action-oriented, structured, and opportunity-driven alternative approach.