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Table 8.2
Role of Nintendo's Cognitive Frames in the Wii Development
Main focus in the
innovation process
Role of Nintendo's
cognitive frame
Case examples from the
Wii's innovation process
Function
1. Questioning estab-
lished product attributes
approaching decreasing
returns
Creation
Supporting an interp-
retation that makes it
possible to asses the
relative experiential
value of dif erent
product attributes.
Nintendo's president
Iwata describing how
the concept of the Wii
was infl uenced by a
shared view among
senior managers
regarding the decreas-
ing returns of existing
product attributes.
2. Continued innova-
tive search ef orts for
discontinuous product
attributes in areas not
yielding immediate
results
Creation
Supporting opportunities
that are based on slowly
changing, repetitive
experiences.
The large number of Wii
remote prototypes, a
development process
characterized by contin-
ued ef orts despite initial
failures. Final design
emerged from a process
of repetitive hands on
experiences with many
alternatives.
3. Supporting structural
connections that reuse
ideas, knowledge and
concepts from previous
experimentation.
Retention
Supporting concep-
tual experimentation
perceived as interesting,
although they might be
technologically imma-
ture at the time. As new
technology later devel-
ops, ideas and concepts
from these experimenta-
tions could be reused.
A range of ideas and
concepts of the Wii that
was infl uenced by previ-
ous explorative projects
at Nintendo with user
interfaces.
4. Overcoming doubts
regarding the value of
the discontinuous prod-
uct attributes
Selection
Supporting a shared
cognitive view of the dis-
continuous opportunity
within the fi rm, making
it a joint group endeavor
to overcome external
resistance and barriers
to the innovation.
Nintendo's EAD general
manager Miyamoto
describing how his team
of industrial designers
were working in team to
overcome the resistance
of the Wii concept
among external parties.
Source: Author's elaboration from the case study.
Fourth, Nintendo's cognitive frame could support a shared view of inno-
vative ef orts within the fi rm, thereby making the process of overcoming
resistance to the discontinuous ef ort a joint group endeavour at the com-
pany. The ef ort to overcome the opposition of groups threatened by the
innovation has been put forward as one of the major challenges for discon-
tinuous innovators (Schumpeter 1934). In the development of the Nintendo
Wii, the industrial designer groups within the company created a shared
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