ABSTRACT
Individual class, knowledge, and expertise are needed for sustainable innovation. It needs people who make the difference, people with impact, who take a lead and show the rest which way to go. These people have the incentive to innovate. They look at renewal as something that is exciting and challenging, provide a counterweight to those who think that renewal is scary and threatening, and seek new knowledge and opportunities to innovate. They willingly enter the innovation path, characterized by relative uncertainty and ambiguity. In this space, they discover new possibilities for the organization and find the solutions leading to sustainable innovation. In some cases, these busy experts even become additional leaders to the formal leader of the project. Their expert role gives them a basis to direct others in the necessary new direction. They are the source of the innovative solutions and ideas the others in the project work with. Innovation teams need such innovative frontrunners, often termed innovation champions (Barczak and Wilemon, 1989; Chakrabarti, 1974; Hauschildt and Kirchmann, 2001; Howell and Boies, 2004; Kim et al., 1999; Maidique, 1980; Roberts and Fusfeld, 1981).
