Abstract
There is a longstanding agreement in management literature that failures should be tolerated to achieve innovative breakthroughs. However, less is known about how organizational search processes unfold after having encountered a failure and how firms can persist in searching within the same idea in order to fix it. This study builds on cognitive research on scientific reasoning to introduce a theory of persistent search during the discovery of a technological invention. This theory argues that organizations search for the latent value of a fully novel technology by generating alternatives (i.e., hypotheses on how the technology works) and experimenting with them. Biases characterize discovery search processes in both the hypotheses and the experiments. After a failure, solely persisting in searching for evidence is detrimental, but a coupled persistent search in the evidence space and the hypotheses space can improve the likelihood of reaching a successful result for the failed technology. The theory is tested by using a unique dataset of dynamic portfolios of research projects built on drug-development data.
Originalsprog | Engelsk |
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Titel | Proceedings of the Eighty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Academy of Management |
Redaktører | Sonia Taneja |
Antal sider | 1 |
Udgivelsessted | Valhalla, NY |
Forlag | Academy of Management |
Publikationsdato | 2024 |
DOI | |
Status | Udgivet - 2024 |
Begivenhed | The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2024: Innovating for the Future: Policy, Purpose, and Organizations - Chicago, USA Varighed: 9 aug. 2024 → 13 aug. 2024 Konferencens nummer: 84 https://aom2024.eventscribe.net/ |
Konference
Konference | The Academy of Management Annual Meeting 2024 |
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Nummer | 84 |
Land/Område | USA |
By | Chicago |
Periode | 09/08/2024 → 13/08/2024 |
Internetadresse |
Navn | Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings |
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ISSN | 0065-0668 |