Digital innovations often follow a more fluid innovation process and, therefore, require different ways of managing the front end of innovation. Agile as alternative to established front end management practices is often suggested, potentially combined with Stage‐Gate, in what is called a hybrid Agile‐Stage‐Gate model, to reap the benefits from both. Implementing the hybrid model in the front end is however not sufficient for firms with separate Research and Development departments to succeed. In such organizations digital innovations still need to be transferred from Research, where the front end work on digital innovations takes place, to the Development department, where formal development actually starts. Yet, such front end transfers have been described as inefficient and ineffective. Realizing digital innovation front end transfers is likely even more challenging because of their fluid definition. In the absence of extant theory on front end transfers in such a setting, this research uses a case study approach to analyze the front end transfer experiences of the Research department of a firm in the lighting industry that is undergoing a transformation from traditional to digital lighting. The in‐depth analysis of triangulated data on eight front end projects shows that Research struggles to transfer digital innovations to Development, because transfer practices in terms of management, scope, and synchronization, turn out to be inherently challenging in a hybrid Agile‐Stage‐Gate setting. Specifically, the results reveal that each transfer practice plays an intricate role in either facilitating (i.e., transfer management) or inhibiting (i.e., transfer scope and synchronization) front end transfers of digital innovations. The discovery of these opposing forces has important implications for novel theorizing on the use of Agile in the front end of digital innovation, transfer practices from Research to Development in a hybrid setting, as well as for theorizing about digital innovation management.

中文翻译：

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敏捷阶段网关环境下数字创新的前端转移

数字创新通常遵循更加流畅的创新过程，因此需要不同的方式来管理创新的前端。通常建议采用敏捷方法来替代已建立的前端管理实践，并有可能与Stage-Gate结合使用，即所谓的Agile-Stage-Gate混合模型，以从两者中获得收益。但是，在前端实施混合模型不足以使拥有独立研发部门的公司获得成功。在这样的组织中，仍然需要将数字创新从研究工作转移到研发部门，在研究部门进行数字创新，而研究部门实际上是在开始正式开发的。然而，这种前端传输已被描述为无效和无效的。由于数字创新前端转移的定义不明确，因此可能更具挑战性。在这种情况下，在缺乏关于前端转移的现成理论的情况下，本研究使用案例研究方法来分析一家照明行业公司的研究部门的前端转移经验，该公司正在从传统照明向数字照明转型。 。对八个前端项目的三角数据进行的深入分析表明，研究部正努力将数字创新转移到开发中，因为在管理，范围和同步方面的转移实践在混合敏捷阶段中固有地具有挑战性门设置。具体而言，结果表明，每种转移实践在促进（即，转移管理）或禁止（即转移范围和同步）数字创新的前端转移。这些对立力量的发现，对于在数字创新前端使用敏捷的新颖理论，在混合环境中从研究到开发的转移实践以及数字创新管理的理论化，都具有重要意义。