Innovative competence, exploration and exploitation: The influence of technological diversification

This paper investigates how technological diversification influences the rate and specific types of innovative competence. We test a set of hypotheses in a longitudinal study of a sample of biotechnology firms. Our findings provide strong support for the premise that a diversified technology base po...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inResearch policy Vol. 37; no. 3; pp. 492 - 507
Main Authors Cristina, Quintana-Garci­a, Benavides-Velasco, Carlos A
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Amsterdam Elsevier B.V 01.04.2008
Elsevier
Elsevier Sequoia S.A
SeriesResearch Policy
Subjects
Biotechnology
Biotechnology industry
Diversification
Exploitation
Exploration
Innovation
Invention
Inventions
Patent data
Science and technology
Studies
Technological change
Technological diversity
Technology policy
Exploration
Patent data
Invention
Technological diversity
Exploitation
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Summary:This paper investigates how technological diversification influences the rate and specific types of innovative competence. We test a set of hypotheses in a longitudinal study of a sample of biotechnology firms. Our findings provide strong support for the premise that a diversified technology base positively affects innovative competence. Furthermore, technological diversification is found to have a stronger effect on exploratory than on exploitative innovative capability. This empirical evidence suggests that technological diversity may mitigate core rigidities and path dependencies by enhancing novel solutions that accelerate the rate of invention, especially that which departs from a firm's past activities.
Bibliography:ObjectType-Article-2
SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1
ObjectType-Feature-1
content type line 23
ISSN:0048-7333
1873-7625
DOI:10.1016/j.respol.2007.12.002