articleAcademy of Management PerspectivesJan 12, 2016GREEN OA

Innovation Through Tradition: Lessons From Innovative Family Businesses and Directions for Future Research

ADAlfredo De MassisFFFederico FrattiniJKJosip KotlarAMAntonio Messeni PetruzzelliMWMike Wright

Lancaster University · Politecnico di Milano · +2 more institutions

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Abstract

In steering toward the future, innovation managers are commonly advised to dismiss the old and make way for the new. However, such “recency bias” may significantly limit a firm’s innovation potential and prevent it from realizing the benefits of past knowledge. We argue that the temporal dimension of innovation deserves more research attention. Combining prior research on innovation, dynamic capabilities, and family business, we conceptualize a new product innovation strategy called innovation through tradition (ITT) and identify its underlying capabilities of interiorizing and reinterpreting past knowledge. We analyze and discuss the illustrative cases of six long-lasting family businesses (Aboca, Apreamare,…

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513
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Topics & keywords

Topics
Keywords
  • Nature versus nurture
  • Dimension (graph theory)
  • Competitive advantage
  • Product (mathematics)
  • Field (mathematics)
  • Value (mathematics)
  • Dynamic capabilities
  • Disruptive innovation
UN Sustainable Development Goals
  • Industry, innovation and infrastructure
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