In search of lost time: the temporal construction of innovation management

Abstract

This paper presents a methodology that is new to the field of innovation management research (IMR), and which is founded upon current interest in theories of time and temporality within organisation studies. We argue that although time is of central importance to innovation management, established methodologies treat time as simply the background against which organisation is done. Even when research is conceptually framed to afford greater attention to time, established methodologies only succeed in highlighting the importance of managers' mobilisation of the past, present and future of innovations. In contrast, we present a methodology that affords time (rather than innovation actors) the more prominent role in analyses and explanations of innovation management. While established research methodologies might offer accounts of the social construction of organisational innovation, we elaborate its temporal construction. The paper reviews the ways in which time and temporality have been deployed (conceptually and methodologically) within IMR. Following a detailed account of the new methodology, its value to innovation management scholarship is demonstrated with a short illustration in which new insights are presented into the emergence of novelty during the management of innovation. The paper concludes with suggestions of areas within IMR where this methodology may generate new insights.