Web searching in early innovation phases: A survey among German companies

Early phases of the innovation process are characterised by uncertainty and limited knowledge regarding the features and attributes of the future product or market and technology requirements. Therefore, a quick, but accuracy information acquisition is one competitive factor. The internet's role within this information retrieval is thereby steadily increasing. Especially the open innovation paradigm shift in combination with the rise of web 2.0 techniques leads to more and more innovation professionals searching the web for innovation-related information. But how do innovation professionals actually search the web? What kind of information sources do they consider important? How satisfied are they with regard to result quality realizable today? What are the current limitation of today's search technology and what suggestions for improvements can be deduced? How useful seem new approaches to internet-based information retrieval for innovation professionals? This paper presents results from a recent survey on web searching behaviour we conducted among industrial innovation professionals in Germany. The results show how innovation professionals search the web today - and they give hints to what must be done to facilitate their tasks in the future