Relating business model innovations and innovation cascades: the case of biotechnology

Jorge Niosi () and Maureen McKelvey ()
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Jorge Niosi: Université du Québec à Montréal
Maureen McKelvey: University of Gothenburg

Journal of Evolutionary Economics, 2018, vol. 28, issue 5, No 5, 1109 pages

Abstract: Abstract This article conceptualizes innovation as a process, where the scientific and industrial application of technological knowledge nurtures new routines and institutions, in order to relate changing business model innovations to innovation cascades. Innovation in science-based, high-tech sectors is changing its tempo, from the evolutionary pace of incremental novelties punctuated by occasional radical novelties, to innovation cascades. These cascades involve a long series of interlinked radical innovations, which can be traced through various scientific and technological indicators like patents and publications. Innovation cascades are relevant to industry, because they make the future less predictable. They are particularly interesting because these changes also enable the testing an abundance of new business models. Innovation cascades have a major impact on the number and sustainability of business models and on strategy. Business model innovations are visible not only in the existing organizations that undergo change, but also new organizational models appear. The case of biotechnology after the 1980s is used to illustrate our conceptualization.

Keywords: Innovation cascades; Biotechnology; Science-based industries; Technological trajectories; Path creation; Business models; Business model innovation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: L26 O31 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (9)

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DOI: 10.1007/s00191-018-0561-9

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