Measuring Exaptation and Its Impact on Innovation, Search, and Problem Solving

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Andriani, Pierpaolo; Ali, Ayfer; Mastrogiorgio, Mariano
• 署名单位: Kedge Business School; Universidad Carlos III de Madrid; IE University
• 刊物名称: ORGANIZATION SCIENCE
• ISSN/ISSBN: 1047-7039
• DOI: 10.1287/orsc.2017.1116
• 发表日期: 2017
• 页码: 320-338
• 关键词: exaptation; INNOVATION; RADICAL INNOVATION; Pharmaceutical industry; search; problem solving

摘要

Exaptation, the emergence of latent functionality in existing artifacts, is an underexplored mechanism of novelty generation in innovation. In this paper, we measure the frequency of exaptation in the pharmaceutical industry. We find that about 42% of new functions derived from existing drugs have an exaptive nature. We think that this constitutes the first measure of exaptation in any industry. We also link exaptation with radical innovation and find that most radical innovations in our sample are exaptive. Also, nearly all radical innovations occur in market areas very distant from the drug's original market. We propose that exaptive innovation constitutes a different search mechanism and problem-solving approach from deliberate innovation and discuss the role of context and serendipity in innovation.