The role of multidisciplinary collaborations in publishing innovation

Product innovation is crucial for the future of the publishing industry, and the objective of this study was to understand the role of multi-disciplinarity in publishing innovation teams, typical patterns of interaction between team members, and similarities and differences in multidisciplinary innovation teams across national boundaries (US, Canada, and Germany). This is an exploratory study from Portland State University, Stuttgart Media University and Toronto Metropolitan University based on twenty-one qualitative in-depth interviews with publishing employees involved in the innovation process. The study reveals that multidisciplinary innovation teams are common in all three countries. Using an input-process-output (IPO) model, researchers found three main things: 1) input from outside the company is helpful; 2) corporate culture, familiarity and psychological safety foster creativity during the innovation process; and 3) innovation output is often evaluated by low-cost prototypes presented to the target audience.