Technological Innovation: Oversights and Foresights

by Edited by Raghu Garud , Praveen Rattan Nayyar , Zur Baruch Shapira , Foreword by James G. March

• ISBN13: 9780521552998
• ISBN10: 0521552990
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1997-04-28
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

The capacity for technology businesses to grow and change with the times is linked to how they develop and market technological innovations. Despite the importance of technological changes for corporate vitality, there are documented instances of corporations failing to capitalize on technological opportunities. Innovation outcome is contingent upon a match between a firm's internal capabilities and its external environments, even as innovation activities are complex and constrained. How can the slim odds of success be enhanced? Technological Innovation analyses why companies choose certain new technologies, from a technological, economic, and institutional perspective. Based upon multidisciplinary research on technological choice, the book bridges research and practice.

Table of Contents

Contributors	vii	(2)
Foreword	ix	(4)
Preface	xiii
Section I Introduction	3	(10)
1 Technological innovation: Oversights and foresights	3	(10)
Raghu Garud
Praveen Nayyar
Zur Shapira
Section II Learning to flip coins	13	(58)
2 On flipping coins and making technology choices: Luck as an explanation of technological foresight and oversight	13	(7)
Jay B. Barney
3 Technological choices and the inevitability of errors	20	(21)
Raghu Garud
Praveen Nayyar
Zur Shapira
4 Rational entrepreneurs or optimistic martyrs? Some considerations on technological regimes, corporate entries, and the evolutionary role of decision biases	41	(30)
Giovanni Dosi
Dan Lovallo
Section III Tailoring fits	71	(58)
5 Cognition and capabilities: Opportunities seized and missed in the history of the computer industry	71	(24)
Richard N. Langlois
6 Changing the game of corporate research: Learning to thrive in the fog of reality	95	(16)
John Seely Brown
7 Environmental determinants of work motivation, creativity, and innovation: The case of R&D downsizing	111	(18)
Teresa M. Amabile
Regina Conti
Section IV Remembering to forget	129	(104)
8 Local rationality, global blunders, and the boundaries of technological choice: Lessons from IBM and DOS	129	(18)
Joseph F. Porac
9 On the dynamics of forecasting in technologically complex environments: The unexpectedly long old age of optical lithography	147	(20)
Rebecca Henderson
10 Three faces of organizational learning: Wisdom, inertia, and discovery	167	(14)
Daniel Levinthal
11 Organizational entrepreneurship in mature-industry firms: Foresight, oversight, and invisibility	181	(33)
Mariann Jelinek
12 Minimizing technological oversights: A marketing research perspective	214	(19)
Jehoshua Eliashberg
Gary L. Lilien
Vithala R. Rao
Section V (S)Top management and culture	233	(112)
13 Firm capabilities and managerial decision making: A theory of innovation biases	233	(27)
Janet E. L. Bercovitz
John M. de Figueiredo
David J. Teece
14 Organization responsiveness to environmental shock as an indicator of organizational foresight and oversight: The role of executive team characteristics and organizational context	260	(19)
Johann Peter Murmann
Michael L. Tushman
15 Technological innovation, learning, and leadership	279	(27)
Andrew H. Van de Ven
David N. Grazman
16 Risky lessons: Conditions for organizational learning	306	(19)
Baruch Fischhoff
Zvi Lanir
Stephen Johnson
17 Exploiting enthusiasm: A Case Study of applied theories of innovation	325	(20)
Gideon Kunda
Section VI Clearing the fog	345	(10)
18 Beating the odds: Towards a theory of technological innovation	345	(10)
Raghu Garud
Praveen Nayyar
Zur Shapira
Author Index	355	(6)
Subject Index	361