Reports & Research

Innovation Leader publishes in-depth quarterly special reports on a variety of topics.

Our latest reports are listed below. Reports are available for members only.

Shaping Your Strategy for Web3 and the Metaverse

What should your company be doing to explore, experiment, and roll out offerings tied to Web3 and the metaverse? That’s the central question we sought to answer with this report, published in August 2022. We relied on qualitative interviews, a survey with 265 respondents, and a collection of case studies of what 20 large organizations have been doing in recent months. We compiled a simplified guide to Web3 and metaverse concepts and terminology. And we also conducted qualitative interviews with leaders in a range of industries, from real estate to financial services to entertainment to telecommunications. Part of our ongoing “CxOs & Innovation” series, sponsored by KPMG LLP.

Retooling R&D for a New Era

Amidst stressful and unpredictable business and societal conditions related to the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, R&D organizations are feeling new pressures. They are trying to fill gaps on their team in a tight talent market; solve problems with essential company operations while also building for the future; bring on new vendors when existing ones are unable to deliver; and deliver more output with the same resources — or in some cases, less. This report details how Global 1000 companies are responding in the current environment, and includes qualitative interviews with companies such as Campbell’s Soup, 3M, W.L. Gore, and Comcast.

More Research Reports

Delivering Value Through Emerging Tech & Innovation
The emerging tech landscape is perenially noisy — and overhyped. Companies first need to develop a clear set of problems they are trying to solve, or experiences they are trying to create, for internal or external customers. This report collects advice from 200-plus corporate professionals, along with senior leaders at Best Buy, Fidelity Investments, AmerisourceBergen, iRobot, MetLife, and other large organizations.
The Changing Landscape of Corporate-Startup Engagement
How are the interactions between Global 1000 companies and startups changing? How do large organizations build the case for greater involvement in the startup ecosystem? What resources do they put in place? To answer those questions, and others, we conducted a survey in Q3 2021 whose respondents included both leaders in large organizations and entrepreneurs who are seeking to collaborate with large organizations. Here’s the 61-page slide deck collecting what we found.
Design as a Competitive Advantage
This series of interviews, surveys, and case studies explores ways that organizations like PayPal, Procter & Gamble, Kimberly-Clark, and Campbell’s Soup are leveraging design as a competitive advantage.
The New Imperatives: Innovation, Agility & Openness
For some, the period between March 2020 and March 2021 may have been a time in which innovation accelerated. But for other companies, spending a year or more in “fast twitch” responsive mode, versus planning for future growth, may have created an innovation deficit. Get data about how 250+ of your peers are responding.
Developing Innovation Metrics & Reports That Really Matter
To shed light on how large companies are creating metrics and reporting approaches that work well, we surveyed 196 professionals in large organizations in the first quarter of 2021.
Essential Data for Finishing 2020 Strong
What does the data show about how corporate innovation is changing? Innovation Leader’s editorial team shares data from four recent reports.
Benchmarking Innovation Initiatives in Financial Services
From late September through the end of October, we interviewed innovation leaders at 15 firms within the financial services ecosystem to benchmark their innovation and incubation activities.
A New Vision for Corporate Innovation
Amidst the disruptions sparked by the COVID-19 pandemic, how should C-level leaders be planning for the future and supporting innovation? With so many priorities demanding their immediate attention, how should they make space to think about the medium- and long-term? This report features quantitative data from a survey of 200-plus professionals responsible for innovation and growth, along with interviews with CEOs, CTOs, and Presidents at companies like W.L. Gore, Stanley Black & Decker, and UPS.
Digitizing the Innovation Team
Get insights and recommendations for innovation leaders seeking to get the most out of digital tools, and also for tool developers seeking to build productive relationships with those leaders.
CxOs & Innovation
In April 2020, we began planning this research initiative, CxOs and Innovation. It will consist of two mini-reports, interviews with corporate leaders, and thought leadership essays by our sponsor, KPMG LLP. The objective: to be helpful to C-Suite leaders and those professionals responsible for driving innovation inside large organizations.
New Data About the Market for Innovation-Related Jobs
We asked 159 innovation professionals about the hiring happening in their organizations — or how long they’ve been hunting for a new role.
The Changing Role of the Innovation Leader
How is the mandate for corporate innovation professionals evolving? What outcomes are C-suite leaders expecting? How does diversity, equity, and inclusion connect to innovation? This research report, part of our “CxOs & Innovation” series, features quantitative data and interviews with executives at Johnson & Johnson, Stanley Black & Decker, John Hancock, and more. It also focuses on how large organizations are navigating the COVID-19 pandemic.
What the Future Looks Like
For our latest report, our team asked members of the innovation community and futurists to forecast what our “new normal” might be. Respondents discussed what aspects of life before the crisis they think will return, and which aspects of the world will be permanently altered.
State of Innovation 2020
As the coronavirus pandemic has led to shelter-in-place orders and sharply reduced economic activity, innovators are wondering about what the future could look like for their teams, organizations, and industries. To better understand what’s happening in corporate innovation and R&D right now, we fielded a survey from April 27-May 4, 2020.
Changing Culture in Large Organizations
In our view, fostering a culture that is supportive of innovation has never been more important than right now. 2020 will be a year of tremendous stress, pivots, and reprioritizing in every organization. Will your organization be able to source and act on the best ideas — ideas that may come from anyone? Test them fast enough? Get them deployed with help from colleagues who are working from home?
Quick Wins: Data and Case Studies on Delivering Results Fast
What role should quick wins play in your innovation or R&D portfolio? That’s the question we set out to answer with a survey and a set of qualitative interviews in our most recent research report.
How Innovation, R&D, and Strategy Executives Get Paid
If you’re doing innovation-related work in a large organization, how much should you be earning?
Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2020
Data, insights, and advice from more than 200 of your peers to help you overcome innovation challenges.
Startup Engagement: Best Practices for Large Organizations
Learn how some of the top-performing organizations in the world design strategies to engage with startups.
Co-Creation & Ecosystem Development
Get data from 275 innovation professionals on co-creation and ecosystem development.
Innovation & Risk
How well-aligned is your innovation group with colleagues in legal, compliance & security? Our 50-page report is packed with advice.
Best Innovation Coverage of 2018
We pulled data on the most popular reports, case studies & resources that our team produced in 2018. Get insights from our 12 top resources and another 15 from our partners.
Blueprints for Corporate Innovators
One of the big projects we’ve been working has been building tools, templates, and other resources to help people working on innovation in large organizations…
Benchmarking Innovation Impact 2018
Innovating inside large organizations is not easy. So how do you deliver concrete, tangible impact — over the short-term, medium-term, and long-term? Innovation Leader and KPMG have collaborated to create the go-to resource on corporate innovation, based on detailed survey data and interviews with senior executives at Whirlpool, Boeing, Johnson & Johnson, Southern Company, General Motors, and more.
Healthcare Innovation from the Leading Edge
Healthcare organizations are an extremely complex environments for innovation. Our report explores how healthcare companies have set up new initiatives that deliver results.
Scouting Trends & Emerging Tech
How do large companies scout the trends and technologies that will be most relevant to their future success? Our report collects advice from executives...
Governance, Reporting & Communications
This report collects the best insights from innovation execs at companies like Johnson & Johnson, ExxonMobil, and others, including recommendations from our members…
Innovation Teams & Business Units
Our report on building productive relationships between innovation groups and the business units includes insights and advice from AIG, Ralph Lauren, W.L. Gore and more.
How Much are Innovation Execs Paid?
We fielded a compensation survey that analyzed the base pay and bonuses of nearly 250 executives responsible for innovation at large corporations. Get data here…
Getting Connected Products Right
We surveyed companies active in, interested in, or developing connected products. Here’s the downloadable PDF report summarizing what we found.