The Generative Properties of Secrecy in Idea Development: A Case Study in Pharmaceutical Innovation

This paper intends to illuminate the dynamic and generative role of (in)formal secrecies in pharmaceutical innovation. More particularly, this qualitative case study is interested in the question of how knowledge protection influences and affects the creative process of idea generation in innovation processes. Does the need to protect promising ideas hinder and impede knowledge exchange and innovative capacities or can secrecy mechanisms, in fact, be productive for creativity? The case study of the development of a biopharmaceutical drug based on in-depth interviews with the involved scientists shows that secrecy is not only effective in order to prevent the loss of a pre-defined, already existing valuable idea as the property of an organization or a group of individuals. Instead, we found secrecy generative in various overlapping and intersecting modes that affected the idea as well as its valuation. Thus, moving beyond functionalist approaches concerned with the effectiveness of a given secrecy mechanism to protect valuable information, this study highlights the social dynamics and effects of the relationship between creativity and secrecy in innovation processes.