This Article Full Text (PDF) References Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Add to Saved Citations Download to citation manager Request Permissions Request Reprints Add to My Marked Citations Citing Articles Citing Articles via Scopus Google Scholar Articles by Gibbert, M. Articles by Scranton, P. Social Bookmarking                         What's this?

Constraints as sources of radical innovation? Insights from jet propulsion development

Bocconi University, michael.gibbert{at}unibocconi.it

Philip Scranton

Rutgers University, scranton{at}crab.rutgers.edu

In popular parlance, ‘necessity is the mother of innovation’.Yet, in innovation management and organizational behavior in general, there is little systematic study into the enabling role of constraints in innovation. In fact, constraints in terms of knowledge or resources are typically connoted negatively, and in order to limit their negative impact on innovation, such constraints need to be overcome.This article contributes to the prevailing notion of overcoming knowledge and resource constraints by discussing four historical cases in the early phases of jet propulsion development. We detail enabling effects of constraints on innovation by drawing on Gidden’s structuration theory, and discuss implications for innovation management.

Key Words: cognition • constraints • Giddens • innovation

Management & Organizational History, Vol. 4, No. 4, 385-399 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/1744935909341781


CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter    What's this?