Knowledge, routines, and cognitive effects in nonmarket selection environments: An examination of the regulatory review of innovations

Francisco Polidoro

Strategic Management Journal, 2020, vol. 41, issue 13, 2400-2435

Abstract: Research summary Evolutionary models of technological evolution highlight the cognitive underpinning of routines that shape organizational adaptation. However, research thus far has overlooked the possibility that cognitive effects might also shape selection. This study redresses this imbalance by examining nonmarket selection, focusing for that purpose on the regulatory review of innovations. It proposes that the more knowledge about different technologies is available to regulatory agencies, the more evaluation incongruities they face when evaluating a focal innovation, which increases the time for its regulatory review. It also proposes that this effect is attenuated when regulatory agencies are more frequently confronted with innovations drawing on new technologies. By elucidating cognitive effects that shape nonmarket selection, this study has theoretical implications for research on technological evolution and organizational learning. Managerial summary This study highlights influences on the regulatory review of innovations, an important hurdle that firms in many industries must clear before launching innovations into the market. The regulatory review of an innovation is largely thought to be facilitated by knowledge about that innovation and the technology on which it builds. But, this view overlooks that knowledge about other technologies that exist in the same domain of an innovation can create evaluation incongruities that hamper its regulatory review, extending its regulatory review time. This effect is attenuated when regulatory agencies are more frequently confronted with new technologies, which makes them more aware of distinctions that different technologies entail, thus reducing incongruities in the review of subsequent innovations.

Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
https://doi.org/10.1002/smj.3196

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:bla:stratm:v:41:y:2020:i:13:p:2400-2435

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.blackwell ... bs.asp?ref=0143-2095

Access Statistics for this article

More articles in Strategic Management Journal from Wiley Blackwell
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Wiley Content Delivery ().