Science‐based innovation as systematic risk‐taking

Alexander Styhre

European Journal of Innovation Management, 2006, vol. 9, issue 3, 300-311

Abstract: Purpose - Research on innovation and knowledge management practice would benefit from examining science‐based innovation work, that is, innovations derived from the ability to exploit scientific know‐how, in greater detail. While much engineering innovation work may be predetermined through rational breakdown analysis, there is always a factor of chance and luck in scientific work. Scientific work is never linear and predictable but must always be envisaged as the outcome of a combination of rule‐governed activities and a certain degree of unconditioned discoveries. The purpose of this paper is to report on how practicing laboratory researchers in a major pharmaceutical company regard their innovation work as being what is always of necessity inherently indeterminate and therefore put demands on top management to allow for a reasonable amount of risk‐taking. Design/methodology/approach - Case study methodology based on interviews with 36 laboratory scientists and managers in a major pharmaceutical company. Findings - The paper concludes that innovation research and knowledge management studies need to regard science‐based innovation as a specific form of innovation not wholly capable of being managed through rationalist management control systems. Originality/value - The paper bridges studies of innovation work in pharmaceutical industry with the perception of risk‐taking among the practicing researchers.

Keywords: Knowledge management; Innovation; Pharmaceuticals industry (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2006
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (text/html)
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.110 ... d&utm_campaign=repec (application/pdf)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers

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:eme:ejimpp:14601060610678167

DOI: 10.1108/14601060610678167

Access Statistics for this article

European Journal of Innovation Management is currently edited by Dr Vincenzo Corvello

More articles in European Journal of Innovation Management from Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Emerald Support ().