Old Is Gold? The Value of Temporal Exploration in the Creation of New Knowledge

In this paper, knowledge creation is considered as a path-dependent evolutionary process that involves recombining knowledge spread over time. The findings of the paper suggest that a balance in combining current knowledge with the knowledge available across large time spans is an important factor that explains the impact of new knowledge. These ideas are empirically tested using patent data from the pharmaceutical industry. Results from the analysis offer support for the hypotheses developed in the paper.

[1]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Product Sequencing: Co-Evolution of Knowledge, Capabilities and Products , 2000 .

[2]  Ezra W. Zuckerman,et al.  Networks, Diversity, and Productivity: The Social Capital of Corporate R&D Teams , 2001 .

[3]  M. Cusumano,et al.  Strategic Maneuvering and Mass-Market Dynamics: The Triumph of VHS over Beta , 1992, Business History Review.

[4]  I. Cockburn,et al.  Measuring competence?: exploring firm effects in pharmaceutical research , 1994 .

[5]  Will Mitchell,et al.  The influence of local search and performance heuristics on new design introduction in a new product market , 1998 .

[6]  R. Katila,et al.  Something Old, Something New: A Longitudinal Study of Search Behavior and New Product Introduction , 2002 .

[7]  S. West,et al.  Multiple Regression: Testing and Interpreting Interactions. , 1994 .

[8]  Daniel A. Levinthal.  Adaptation on rugged landscapes , 1997 .

[9]  M. Tushman,et al.  Technological Discontinuities and Organizational Environments , 1986 .

[10]  J. Davidson Frame,et al.  Measuring national technological performance with patent claims data , 1994 .

[11]  D. Campbell.  Variation and Selective retention in Socio-Cultural Evolution , 1965 .

[12]  J. Ravetz.  Sociology of Science , 1972, Nature.

[13]  S. Shane,et al.  The Promise of Entrepreneurship as a Field of Research , 2000 .

[14]  H. White.  A Heteroskedasticity-Consistent Covariance Matrix Estimator and a Direct Test for Heteroskedasticity , 1980 .

[15]  Raghu Garud,et al.  Path Creation as a Process of Mindful Deviation , 2013 .

[16]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Evolutionary trajectories in petroleum firm R&D , 1994 .

[17]  J. March.  Exploration and exploitation in organizational learning , 1991, STUDI ORGANIZZATIVI.

[18]  B. Kogut,et al.  Localization of Knowledge and the Mobility of Engineers in Regional Networks , 1999 .

[19]  Jon Elster,et al.  Explaining technical change : a case study in the philosophy of science , 1985 .

[20]  D. Teece.  Profiting from technological innovation: Implications for integration, collaboration, licensing and public policy , 1993 .

[21]  W. Brian Arthur,et al.  Path-dependent processes and the emergence of macro-structure , 1987 .

[22]  J. March,et al.  A Behavioral Theory of the Firm , 1964 .

[23]  R. Garud,et al.  TRANSFORMATIVE CAPACITY: CONTINUAL STRUCTURING BY INTERTEMPORAL TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER , 1994 .

[24]  R. Grant,et al.  Environments: Organizational Capability as Knowledge Integration , 2022 .

[25]  D. Leonard-Barton.  CORE CAPABILITIES AND CORE RIGIDITIES: A PARADOX IN MANAGING NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT , 1992 .

[26]  Nathan Rosenberg,et al.  Inside the black box , 1983 .

[27]  Constance E. Helfat,et al.  Firm-Specificity in Corporate Applied R&D , 1994 .

[28]  M. Brewer,et al.  Intellectual Capital and the Birth of U.S. Biotechnology Enterprises , 1994 .

[29]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  Fortune favors the prepared firm , 1994 .

[30]  B. Silverman.  Technological Resources and the Direction of Corporate Diversification: Toward an Integration of the Resource-Based View and Transaction Cost Economics , 1998 .

[31]  Rita Gunther McGrath.  A Real Options Logic for Initiating Technology Positioning Investments , 1997 .

[32]  J. Schumpeter,et al.  The Theory of Economic Development , 2017 .

[33]  S. Liebowitz,et al.  Path Dependence, Lock-In, and History , 1995 .

[34]  S. Winter.  Knowledge and Competence as Strategic Assets , 1987 .

[35]  Joan D. Penner-Hahn,et al.  Firm and environmental influences on the mode and sequence of foreign research and development activities , 1998 .

[36]  Ajit Kambil,et al.  Research Notes: Looking Back and Thinking Ahead: Effects of Prior Success on Managers' Interpretations of New Information Technologies , 1999 .

[37]  David Kline,et al.  Rembrandts in the Attic: Unlocking the Hidden Value of Patents , 1999 .

[38]  Michael L. Tushman,et al.  The Coevolution of Community Networks and Technology: Lessons from the Flight Simulation Industry , 1998 .

[39]  R. Blundell,et al.  Dynamic Count Data Models of Technological Innovation , 1994 .

[40]  Constance E. Helfat.  Guest editor's introduction to the special issue: the evolution of firm capabilities , 2000 .

[41]  Sidney G. Winter,et al.  The satisficing principle in capability learning , 2000 .

[42]  Jesper B. Sørensen,et al.  Aging, Obsolescence, and Organizational Innovation , 2000 .

[43]  Israel M. Kirzner.  Discovery and the Capitalist Process , 1985 .

[44]  AnnaLee Saxenian,et al.  Regional Networks and the Resurgence of Silicon Valley , 1990 .

[45]  Lee Fleming,et al.  Special Issue on Design and Development: Recombinant Uncertainty in Technological Search , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[46]  Scott Shane,et al.  Technological Opportunities and New Firm Creation , 2001, Manag. Sci..

[47]  A. Cameron,et al.  Econometric models based on count data. Comparisons and applications of some estimators and tests , 1986 .

[48]  Curba Morris Lampert,et al.  Entrepreneurship in the large corporation: a longitudinal study of how established firms create breakthrough inventions , 2001 .

[49]  B. Kogut,et al.  Knowledge of the Firm, Combinative Capabilities, and the Replication of Technology , 1992 .

[50]  Z. Griliches,et al.  Econometric Models for Count Data with an Application to the Patents-R&D Relationship , 1984 .

[51]  W. Arthur,et al.  INCREASING RETURNS AND LOCK-IN BY HISTORICAL EVENTS , 1989 .

[52]  R. Katila.  New Product Search Over Time: Past Ideas in Their Prime? , 2002 .

[53]  Daniel A. Levinthal,et al.  ABSORPTIVE CAPACITY: A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON LEARNING AND INNOVATION , 1990 .

[54]  Kim B. Clark,et al.  Architectural Innovation: The Reconfiguration of Existing Product Technologies and the Failure of , 1990 .

[55]  Joel A. C. Baum,et al.  Evolutionary dynamics of organizations , 1996 .

[56]  Frances J. Milliken,et al.  The role of managerial learning and interpretation in strategic persistence and reorientation: An empirical exploration , 1992 .

[57]  John Cantwell,et al.  Technological globalisation and innovative centres: the role of corporate technological leadership and locational hierarchy , 1999 .

[58]  S. Shane,et al.  The Promise of Enterpreneurship as a Field of Research , 2000 .

[59]  Sidney G. Winter,et al.  FOUR Rs OF PROFITABILITY: RENTS, RESOURCES, ROUTINES, AND REPLICATION , 1995 .

[60]  ReagansRay,et al.  Networks, Diversity, and Productivity , 2001 .

[61]  A. Nerkar,et al.  Beyond local search: boundary‐spanning, exploration, and impact in the optical disk industry , 2001 .

[62]  S. Winter,et al.  Appropriating the Returns from Industrial Research and Development , 1987 .

[63]  George Basalla,et al.  The Evolution of Technology: Selection (2): Social and Cultural Factors , 1989 .

[64]  Toby E. Stuart,et al.  A Role-Based Ecology of Technological Change , 1995, American Journal of Sociology.

[65]  J. Heckman,et al.  Does Unemployment Cause Future Unemployment? Definitions, Questions and Answers from a Continuous Time Model of Heterogeneity and State Dependence. , 1980 .

[66]  P. David,et al.  The economics of gateway technology and network evolution: lessons from electricity supply history , 1988 .

[67]  F. Narin,et al.  Direct validation of citation counts as indicators of industrially important patents , 1991 .

[68]  G. Dosi.  Technological Paradigms and Technological Trajectories: A Suggested Interpretation of the Determinants and Directions of Technical Change , 1982 .

[69]  P. Pardey.  The Agricultural Knowledge Production Function: An Empirical Look , 1987 .

[70]  S. Zeger,et al.  Longitudinal data analysis using generalized linear models , 1986 .

[71]  S. Winter,et al.  An evolutionary theory of economic change , 1983 .