beyond ‘funnel’ and ‘fireworks’: ‘water ribbed balloon’ as a new metaphorical approach to innovation-in-practice

product innovation success has very much to do with the development of models ormetaphors that are able to guide actors. one can observe two traditions in thisregard: rational and non-rational models. apparently in the former the model, suchas “development funnel”, is regarded as a mechanism and rigid applicable, picturinginnovation as an orderly, goal-oriented, value-neutral, and systematic process. thelatter account offers a few non-rational models that depict product innovation aschaotic, messy, and stressful which involves jagged lines of activity, much like“fireworks”. this paper draws on the work of donald schön to develop a moresocio-politically informed yet pragmatic approach to innovation in organisation i.e.‘ribbed water balloon’. this model outlines product innovation as a non-rational andsocio-technical practice, one that not only reveals politics, uncertainty, unsteadiness,setbacks, and reversals with which actors grapple but also considers rituals, normsand organization’s behavioral world in its understanding.