Bastien Soule

Innovation in Sport


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data harvested on their physical activity is subject to secondary use by the producers of these apps.

      In this respect, it remains important to move beyond the company-consumer dyad to take into account all interacting stakeholders (Woratschek et al. 2014), relying in particular on the notion of stakeholder network, as Grohs et al. (2020)3 did in the case of sports events.

      THE LIMITS OF THESE APPROACHES – While this approach has led to decisive advances, it leaves some questions unanswered. By emphasizing the primary role of lead users, the proponents of the LUT sometimes come to underestimate the structuring role of the traditional actors of innovation (companies, laboratories, etc.). In a way, they reactivate a new incarnation of the heroic figure (the lead users, the communities of practitioners resemble the “disinterested enthusiast” of the mythology of innovation analyzed by (Callon 1994)), which displaces, rather than overcomes, the emphasis placed on a central actor in the innovation process. The role and objectives of the users appear to be quite heterogeneous, just like the forms of relations that are established with the manufacturers and their representatives. Some of the innovations described are in fact similar to “simple” customizations, which are, after all, quite classic in the phase of appropriation of serial equipment or material. Open innovation is certainly part of a more egalitarian dyadic relationship between companies and users, but it is not a miracle solution. There are many consumers and their needs are evolving. What’s more, listening too much to certain users can destroy value for other users and even other stakeholders. Innovation is a collective activity that requires going beyond the organization-consumer dyad to take into account the wider network of actors who will support it, as well as the many material and technical elements that will influence the fate of a new product.

      The socio-technical analysis of innovations makes it possible to enrich the previous contributions, in particular by going beyond the overly pronounced focus on certain components of the systems: the entrepreneur, the technical object, the user, etc. According to this relational approach, the success of an innovation depends above all on the progressive construction of a network of stakeholders who will support it and give it substance. It is therefore understandable that the central issue becomes recruiting allies, identifying their expectations and translating the project in such a way as to interest them (Akrich et al. 1988a, 2006). The originality of this point of view is summed up in the following statement, which is rather iconoclastic with regard to the usual sacralization of the inventor: the fate of an innovation does not depend so much on the intrinsic qualities of the idea or the object conceived as on the solidity and breadth of the chain that will support it. Innovating therefore consists of building and maintaining a chain of association that is increasingly extended, solid and stable, by attracting and recruiting new actors. Kline and Rosenberg (1986) develop a vision of innovation as an interactive process, or chain-linked model, compatible with the socio-technical approach. The consensus that has gradually taken hold in the academic sphere around this collective and systemic understanding of innovation has not prevented institutions responsible for innovation policies from maintaining approaches that are too linear and/or focused on a few key actors (Joly 2019).

      In order to develop and strengthen the innovation network, one must regularly agree to transform the project into a new form acceptable to new entrants. The adoption of an innovation thus goes hand in hand with an adaptation, or even a reinvention of the “product” (which (Gaglio 2011) summarized through the neologism “adaptation”). Moreover, recruiting or losing an actor leads to a new network, which is likely to reconfigure the project. At each stage, “the innovation is transformed, redefining its properties and its public” (Akrich et al. 1988b, p. 31). This approach does not prejudge the decisive role of any one actor (who may be quite ordinary: a prototypist, a salesperson, a supplier, a client, etc.), especially since his or her influence may vary considerably from one stage to another. Moreover, many innovation trajectories develop despite the exit of the inventor’s network or of a key player from the beginning.