Download This PaperCognitive and Structural Antecedents of Innovation: A Large-Sample Study
Strategy Science, Forthcoming
43 Pages Posted: 17 Dec 2019 Last revised: 30 Apr 2020
Date Written: March 23, 2020
Abstract
This paper studies how cognitive and structural antecedents affect adaptation to disruptive innovations. We do so by analyzing how video game firms adapted to the "free-to-play" business model around the period of disruption (2012-2015). Our dataset (which contains 461 firms, collectively employing 83,157 individuals) allows us to characterize each firm's organizational structure and each employee's experience profile; it also captures the performance of firms under the existing and new technological regimes (that is, firms that do and do not adopt the disruptive innovation). We show that adoption, implementation under the existing regime, and implementation under the new regime are affected by cognitive and structural antecedents in different and often opposite ways. We also point out conditions under which cognitive and structural antecedents can compensate for each other. Overall, our study contributes to a better understanding of how firms should organize to face disruptive innovations.
Keywords: adaptation, innovation, managerial cognition, organizational structure
JEL Classification: O31, O32, O33, D22, D70, D81, D83, M13
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation
Saerom (Ronnie) Lee
Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania ( email )
The Wharton School
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6370
United States
HOME PAGE: http://www.saeromlee.com
Felipe A. Csaszar (Contact Author)
University of Michigan, Stephen M. Ross School of Business ( email )
701 Tappan Street
Ann Arbor, MI MI 48109
United States
(734) 615 4854 (Phone)
HOME PAGE: http://csaszar.info/