From Creativity to Product Launch: The Role of knowledge in the Innovation and Imitation Processes

Abstract

Knowledge plays an ambiguous role in the innovation process. On one hand, when it is new, non-observable, uncodified and explorative, knowledge incentives creativity and it is the ferment of any idea generation. On the other hand, when it is observable. codified and exploitative, knowledge facilitates the culmination of the innovation or imitation process. This paper, using a survey of 400 companies, empirically analyzes the knowledge roles in radical and incremental innovation and imitation processes. Our results point out that non-observable knowledge favors the development of inventions (radical and incremental), that codified knowledge positively influences the obtaining of incremental inventions and imitations: and of radical and incremental innovations; and that innovation and imitation radicalness is related with complex knowledge. These findings help to clear some of the non resolved questions of previous studies.