articleStrategic Management JournalMay 22, 2014Closed access

The double‐edged sword of recombination in breakthrough innovation

SKSarah KaplanKVKeyvan Vakili

University of Toronto · London Business School

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Abstract

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…

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735
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2

Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • SWORD
  • Novelty
  • Creativity
  • Value (mathematics)
  • Realization (probability)
  • Recombination
  • Computer science
  • Domain (mathematical analysis)
UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Industry, innovation and infrastructure
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