Innovation strategy selection under uncertain conditions

Innovation is a crucial tool for the firms to compete; thus defining the factors which affect this process is necessary to give a quick response to the changes. When the relationships among the factors are considered, the innovation strategy selection process becomes complicated and finding a suitable strategy is a vital problem for companies. However, today an increase in uncertainty has a significant effect on the innovation processes of firms. In order to manage the risk of their business, firms should identify the uncertainties and their relations with innovation activities. In this work, we concentrate on the conceptual model that reveals the determinants of innovation strategy. First, we explain the factors and their relations with each other based on the literature survey and the experts' opinion. This suggested framework is suitable for every firm and generally accepted. Due to the complex nature of innovation strategy selection process, Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) methods are appropriate tools in order to make a decision based on our conceptual model. As a consequence, as there are interrelations among the related factors, we use a multi-criteria approach which can utilize network models as a tool. Finally, relative importance of the factors and the priorities of the strategies are assessed based on the ANP's pairwise comparison questions. Our study shows that, although the strategy selection process includes uncertainties, the decision makers can apply ANP method easily in the light of our conceptual model.