Abstract:

Innovation holds a central place in business education, yet teaching often approaches it through a restricted pedagogic perspective. Students are encouraged to appreciate creativity, originality, and entrepreneurial thinking, while receiving fewer opportunities to engage with the investigative and evaluative work through which innovation takes form. In many modules, innovation is presented as a desirable organisational quality or managerial aspiration, while the tasks of defining problems, examining assumptions, negotiating constraints, and developing workable proposals receive less attention. This challenge becomes particularly visible in final-year undergraduate study, where students are expected to work with greater autonomy while preparing for professional environments in which originality alone rarely has value.

This study investigates that issue within a final-year Business Administration module on creativity and innovation structured around an open innovation challenge with an external company. Students worked in teams on a live industry brief rather than a simulated classroom case. The task required them to clarify the problem, determine relevant evidence, consider user and market factors, and develop proposals that could be justified within commercial and organisational limits. A mixed-methods pre- and post-design was employed. Quantitative data were collected through surveys administered before and after the module, measuring discovery and execution capabilities alongside perceptions of team innovativeness. The dataset comprised 39 cases. Analysis was both quantitative and qualitative including descriptive statistics and the analysis of 39 written reflections through a hybrid thematic approach moving from descriptive coding to interpretive themes.

Results indicate statistically significant improvement across the module. Combined innovation capability increased, and category distributions showed clear upward movement, particularly for execution. Reflections provided further insight. Students most often described learning through activities linked to discovery, including empathy work, observation, questioning assumptions, and problem definition. Many reported a shift from viewing innovation as spontaneous inspiration to understanding it as iterative and structured. Execution appeared in reflections through feasibility assessment, selection, financial viability, and implementation decisions.

The study contributes to innovation theory in higher education by distinguishing discovery and execution as complementary dimensions of learning and demonstrating that they become visible through different forms of evidence. It also contributes to educational practice by showing that an open innovation challenge can connect creativity with constraint, requiring students not only to generate ideas but also to investigate, justify, refine, and develop them under realistic organisational conditions.

Keywords:

Innovation education, discovery and execution, industry-engaged learning, experiential learning, business education.