Narrow Results

Past research has shown that foundational innovations is often contingent upon access to technologies whose influence/application exceeds the territory of that technology’s definition (technology-application diversity) and sourcing innovation outside a firm’s focal industry (sourcing diversity). However, going outside one’s focal industry can be expensive, complicated, and distracting, possibly leading to mixed results. We theorise that while technology-application diversity enhances foundational innovations, sourcing diversity impedes it. In addition, we argue that sourcing diversity negatively moderates the relationship between technology-application diversity and foundational innovation. Finally, we argue that high technology-application diversity and low sourcing diversity will have the strongest relationship with foundational innovation. To test our assertions, we studied patent filings between 1996 and 2009 from the IT industry from the S&P 500 database. The empirical evidence supported our claims. Findings recommend that to maximise chances of foundational innovation, firms must combine high instances of technologies whose application transcend their definitions with the minimum possible contacts outside their focal industry. Thus, there is an optimum combination of sourcing diversity and technology-application diversity with which foundational innovation is maximised. We close the paper by summarising the key conclusions, conferring implications for theory and practice, and proposing avenues for future research.

This study investigates the strategic orchestration of New Product Development (NPD) teams, focusing on how age diversity influences their innovation capabilities within the competitive landscape of firms. As firms encounter an evolving demographic landscape, the role of team composition, particularly age diversity, becomes critical in tuning innovation and market alignment. This paper synthesises the disparate findings from the innovation management literature on the impact of age diversity, employing dual theoretical perspectives: information/decision-making and similarity/categorisation. The former suggests that age diversity brings diverse knowledge that boosts innovation, while the latter indicates it might hinder social cohesion and team performance. Addressing the gaps in existing research, this study explores tenure diversity and team familiarity as moderators in the age diversity–performance relationship. It hypothesises that tenure diversity can enhance knowledge exchange and innovation but may complicate social interactions, whereas high team familiarity might restrict new idea generation by homogenising knowledge. Empirical analysis conducted on a dataset of 21,370 observations from Japanese sake breweries reveals that tenure diversity and team familiarity are critical in moderating the effects of age diversity on NPD outcomes. These findings enrich the NPD literature by highlighting the importance of demographic diversity and provide new insights into managing age-related dynamics in team settings. The study underscores the need for managerial strategies that leverage demographic diversity to enhance NPD effectiveness.