This paper suggests that the innovation process has intensified as a result of the application of new digital technologies. These technologies that simulate, model and integrate, intensify the innovation process through facilitating economy of effort and definiteness of aim. Of all the many analytical lenses used to examine innovation, the most valuable in accounting for this “automation of innovation” is Rothwell's concept of the 5th Generation Innovation Process. Our paper revisits this element of Rothwell's (1992) prize-winning article in R&D Management. It reviews the use of a range of enabling technologies and strategic management practices for the automation of innovation that were either in gestation or unknown at the time of Rothwell's paper. Rothwell's speculation about the increased “electronification” of the innovation process, and of related technological and strategic integration, has proven to be correct. The use of the new “electronic toolkit” can transform the innovation process by facilitating the transfer, transformation and control of information. Using insights from contemporary innovation and management research, this paper examines the benefits and limitations of these digital technologies in dealing with the challenges of innovation of reducing costs and increasing speed, predictability and strategic organisational integration. It presents a conceptual framework for assessing the intensification of innovation and outlines some strategic managerial precepts that will facilitate effective use of these technologies. The paper concludes with speculations about future developments in the intensification of innovation and its impact for strategic management, together with questions for further research.
