Center for Innovation Management Studies
The Center for Innovation Management Studies (CIMS) joined Poole College in 2000, from Lehigh University where it was founded in 1984, bringing along its database of innovation management research results conducted over nearly 30 years in partnership with industry and academic institutions.
Since then, CIMS has funded numerous faculty research projects that have produced, among other results, assessment tools such as the Innovation Management Maturity Model (IMMA) and Value IQ (VIQ) developed by Lynda Aiman-Smith, associate professor in Poole College's Department of Management, Innovation and Entrepreneurship. These tools are available at the CIMS website for companies to explore and test with trial runs. A graphic interface on the site – CIMS’s IM Cube – allows leaders of organizations to visualize the importance and impact of five core competences and five core dimensions essential for firms that want to master innovation management and enjoy the benefits of top-line growth.
Most recently, CIMS has spearheaded the application of big data analytics to industry problems through projects involving student teams in the Jenkins MBA program’s biosciences management concentration as well as with corporate clients served by North Carolina State Executive Education (NCSEE), through which Poole College delivers its executive development programs. Big data analytics is now being taught as a Jenkins MBA course by Dr. Michael Kowolenko, teaching assistant professor who began working with in this area as a CIMS Industrial Fellow and Poole College principal research scholar.
CIMS also has funded a 3-year project, currently under way, on the adaptation of the TEC Algorithm to implementing big data decision tools, sustainability management practices, entrepreneurship as well as intrepreneurship, and other key elements essential for successful innovation management processes. This project is led by Dr. Steve Markham, associate professor in Poole College's MIE department. Additional innovation management research is under way by CIMS research and industry fellows at other universities and industry partner companies.
Jenkins MBA students are introduced to many of the CIMS tools, specifically those related to organizational culture in the MBA 530 People Management course, and have opportunities to apply them to industry-team projects in that course as well as others in the graduate innovation management concentration. Students in the Jenkins Master of Global Innovation Management (MGIM) program work on innovation management projects as part of their coursework during their semester at the French Institut d’Administration des Entreprises at the Université Paul Cézanne in Aix en Provence.
Results of research conducted by students, faculty and industry fellows are reported through CIMS’s newsletter, blogs and reports on the CIMS website, and presented and discussed at its fall and spring meetings. The 2013 spring meeting will be held April 16 and 17 at the Raleigh Downtown Marriott.
CIMS's current member companies are Air Products and Chemicals; BASF Plant Sciences; Cisco Systems, Inc.; IBM; North Carolina Biotechnology Center; Pentair Water Poole and Spa; Xerox; and Kelly Services, Inc. Its partners are the Industrial Research Institute, the Kenan Institute for Engineering, Technology and Science, the National Science Foundation, and the NC State Poole College of Management.
The CIMS team is based in Poole College’s MIE department. Lead members are Paul Mugge, executive director; Michelle Grainger, managing director; Richard Kouri, professor of practice; Steve Markham, associate professor; and Alden Bean, founder and executive director emeritus
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