Innovation through exaptation and its determinants: The role of technological complexity, analogy making & patent scope

Mariano Mastrogiorgio and Victor Gilsing

Research Policy, 2016, vol. 45, issue 7, 1419-1435

Abstract: The concept of exaptation has been recently introduced in innovation studies. Previous empirical studies have only focused on the organization-level conditions of exaptation. This paper fills the gaps by focusing on invention and inventor-level conditions such as technological complexity, inventors’ analogical ability, and patent scope. To test our hypotheses, we analyse a large sample of U.S. patents obtained from the USPTO and NBER databases. Based on our findings, we discuss a number of implications of exaptation for the management of innovation as well as for policy makers.

Keywords: Exaptation; Complexity; Analogy; Patents; Recombination; Innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2016
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (23)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:respol:v:45:y:2016:i:7:p:1419-1435

DOI: 10.1016/j.respol.2016.04.003

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