Semantic mapping of cognitively diverse start-upteams: Dynamic creative interoperability

How do small firms in different sectors collaborate to innovate? A possible explanation is that of network structural holes and their bridging (Burt, 1992). Conversely, Stark (2009) argues that solely bridging or brokering does not necessarily lead to the generation of new knowledge, and that successful innovations occur rather via folded diversity, that is, where two firms have some shared membership as well as distinct cognitive diversity. But what happens when cognitively diverse firms without the advantage of overlapping membership nevertheless seek to co-create an innovation to mutual commercial advantage? Using Leximancer we built semantic network maps for three interventions in which small digital creative firms each formed new knowledge with a group from one of three other sectors: education, mining and manufacturing. We argue the semantic enabling of the interventions acted as both a broker and a “structural fold”, enabling social legitimation and a shared language that made innovation possible.