Innovation Management in European Projects

Abstract : Companies need innovation to increase their market share and profit margin. Innovation is the successful product put on the market using a new idea. At the beginning of the process, it is not simple to evaluate if the novelty will be or not an innovation. It is in general after launching and selling the new product that the innovation level can be assessed. This paper addresses one main issue: "How to anticipate the innovation performance for the decision making process?". It suggests a method to measure the innovation level of a product or a service, based on MIM© (Monnier's Innovation Matrix). This tool could be used for decision making process to support marketing and corporate strategy or a collaborative research project. The added value of this method is that it allows to manage innovation projects. As far as we know, this problem has never been addressed before. The only document, which could be mentioned in this field, is the "Oslo Manual" from European Community. This document is more focused on the innovation issued by technology than services and it concerns large organisation. The MIM tool can also be used as a criterion for advanced partners selection paradigm.