Exploring the Foundations of Cumulative Innovation: Implications for Organization Science

Authors:
Fiona Murray;Siobhán O'Mahony
Affiliations:
Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142;Graduate School of Management, University of California at Davis, Davis, California 95616
Venue:
Organization Science
Year:
2007

Citing 0
Cited 7

Perspective---The Interdependence of Private and Public Interests

Organization Science
Knowledge Collaboration in Online Communities

Organization Science
Adoption and Diffusion of Business Practice Innovations: An Evolutionary Analysis

International Journal of Electronic Commerce
Innovation and learning performance implications of free revealing and knowledge brokering in competing communities: insights from the Netflix Prize challenge

Computational & Mathematical Organization Theory
Bringing the Institutional Context Back In: A Cross-National Comparison of Alliance Partner Selection and Knowledge Acquisition

Organization Science
Why Put All Your Eggs in One Basket? A Competition-Based View of How Technological Uncertainty Affects a Firm’s Technological Specialization

Organization Science
Balancing on a tightrope: Managing the boundaries of a firm-sponsored OSS community and its impact on innovation and absorptive capacity

Information and Organization

Quantified Score

Hi-index	0.00

Visualization

Abstract

Organizational theorists have built a deep understanding of the conditions affecting knowledge sharing. However, for innovation to occur, knowledge must not just be shared, but also reused, recombined, and accumulated. Such accumulation is not inherent to the innovation process but can be either supported or limited by the context in which it occurs. We propose a framework arguing that three conditions shape this context: disclosure, access, and rewards. We show how these conditions operate at the institutional, field, community, and organizational levels. Our framework highlights how when innovators encounter barriers to the accumulation of knowledge, their solutions are often organizational ones rather than legal ones. This suggests an expanding terrain for organizational scholars interested in debates often dominated by law and economics.