DeGroote professors ranked world’s top innovation management scholars

[img_inline align=”right” src=”http://padnws01.mcmaster.ca/images/elko_bob.jpg” caption=”Robert Cooper (left) and Elko Kleinschmidt have been named the world’s top innovation management scholars.”]

Robert Cooper and Elko Kleinschmidt, professors of strategic market leadership at the DeGroote School of Business, have been named the world's top innovation management scholars in the May 2007 issue of the Journal of Product Innovation Management.

Based on a study of nearly 1,200 scholars, Cooper ranks as the world's top scholar and Kleinschmidt, fifth. Scott Edgett, a former DeGroote professor, ranks seventh.

The peer-reviewed journal is published by the Product Development and Management Association (PDMA), an organization that represents the world's largest membership of innovation practitioners and academics. The study, by Jeff Thieme at the University of Memphis, ranks scholars based on the number of articles published in quality journals. The study examines 1,000 technical papers and articles written by academics around the world over the past 15 years.

“It's great to be recognized by your peers, but it's even more gratifying to see the amount of good scholarly work on innovation management that now exists,” said Cooper, who is widely considered a pioneer in the field of innovation management. “Most importantly however, it is that the knowledge in these articles is being applied and is making a real difference to companies around the globe.”

Cooper frequently consults with industry and is a popular keynote speaker. Along with Edgett, he co-founded the Product Development Institute Inc. and Stage-Gate Inc.