The double-edged sword of recombination in breakthrough innovation

We explore the double-edged sword of recombination in generating breakthrough innovation: recombination of distant or diverse knowledge is needed because knowledge in a narrow domain might trigger myopia, but recombination can be counterproductive when local search is needed to identify anomalies. W...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Strategic management journal 2015-10, Vol.36 (10), p.1435-1457
Main Authors: Kaplan, Sarah, Vakili, Keyvan
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
breakthrough innovation
cognition
Creativity
Economic models
Innovation
Innovations
Knowledge
Knowledge management
Modelling
recombination
Strategic management
Studies
topic modeling
Value
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Summary:We explore the double-edged sword of recombination in generating breakthrough innovation: recombination of distant or diverse knowledge is needed because knowledge in a narrow domain might trigger myopia, but recombination can be counterproductive when local search is needed to identify anomalies. We take into account how creativity shapes both the cognitive novelty of the idea and the subsequent realization of economic value. We develop a text-based measure of novel ideas in patents using topic modeling to identify those patents that originate new topics in a body of knowledge. We find that, counter to theories of recombination, patents that originate new topics are more likely to be associated with local search, while economic value is the product of broader recombinations as well as novelty.
ISSN:0143-2095
1097-0266
DOI:10.1002/smj.2294