Social innovation through a dementia project using innovation architecture

Abstract This paper discusses a methodology for companies to use in conducting a mid-long term project to find unknown markets or customers emerging in the future. The motivation for doing this study was to establish a practical way to handle emerging market requirements for research and development in turbulent markets with a smaller impact requiring few changes or additions to existing business processes. Many companies understand the significance of having a mid-long term marketing strategy. However, adding different types of workflows could be a burden for companies that are concentrating on their daily business operations. The applied methodology uses technology roadmapping (TRM) tools, which are used in organizations as common and visual languages for discussing strategies. This paper proposes an extended application of a TRM tool and demonstrates that companies can handle the challenges of social innovation with a smaller impact. In the authors’ project called “Society Living with Dementia,” the company formed a “virtual team” with new stakeholders that a conventional business process would not be able to manage and created shared knowledge. The contribution is a practical example of a private-sector company that establishes relationships in a step-by-step fashion with potential stakeholders including non-profit organizations, policy makers, and people with dementia to address a social issue.