Accepted 14^th May, 2021

Seiichi Fujii

Ritsumeikan Asia Pacific University, Japan.

The digitalized modern economy requires radical innovations and for this reason, many organizations have attempted to create and launch new products and/or services in the market. In such innovation processes, the roles to oversee these innovation changes in the organizations involve key persons termed “champions.” This study sought to reveal the relationships between the innovation process and champions, the roles of product champion in the innovation process, and the kinds of components that are required to act as a champion. To clarify the roles of product champions, the existing research was reviewed and some key persons were identified for the sake of comparison. These key persons included the following: entrepreneurs, sponsors, gatekeepers, promoters, project leader/project managers, transformational leaders and serial innovators. Following the measurement of the roles of product champion against other key persons’ roles, several researchers observed that such roles are changing with the innovation process. Thus, the innovation process can be divided into an initial process and an implementation process. The results of this research consisted of 16 propositions and 4 significant viewpoints, the latter of which included the following: supporting each other, the reflection of innovation type, and the influence of the innovation process.

Key words: Radical innovation process, product champion, key person, serial innovator.