Tearing down the façades of radical innovation

a r t i c l e i n f o Managers construct organizational façades that mislead external stakeholders, organizational members, auditors, researchers, other managers, and even themselves (Nystrom & Starbuck, 1984). Very little empirical research has been conducted on how managers build these façades since Nystrom & Starbuck's first influential article. This paper reports on the creation of an organization innovation façade from the day of initial crafting to its final collapse. The paper proposes a theoretical model of façade-crafting in large organizations, and its unsuspected role in fostering radical innovation, radical change and transformative action. What defines " radicality " ? At what point in time is an innovation considered as radical? The adjective expresses the act of departing from the root or the source of an accepted practice or convention to permanently substitute it with a new archetype of this practice, i.e. a " new root " In this perspective, a radical innovation is one that departs from its embedded origins, which can be encapsulated into widely shared axioms and principles, but also in conventional understanding of what a technology is supposed to achieve, and how it supposed to achieve it. A " radical innovation " is hence considered as the conceptualization of a method, approach or system that redefines the very root on how the concerned human activity was conventionally conducted; to such an extent that this occasional root may be abandoned (Mansfield, 1968). Convincing customers, stakeholders, markets and investors that a firm is on the edge of a " radical innovation " plays a major role in establishing a reputation for progressive thinking, industry leadership, and generating the overall affluence of an organization (Abrahamson, 1996). Hence, contemporary organizations have a keen interest in developing an " image " of radical innovators when it comes to the public appreciation of their product development. Silicon Valley, that has turned product announcements into entertainment events, may well be an exemplar of such a strategy. These pre-emptive announcements, however, do not always match reality when the products actually reach the market; sometimes to an extent that could, retrospectively, lead to qualify these announcements as " façades ". Organizational façades (Nystrom & Starbuck, 1984) are organizational false fronts that " enable managers to justify actions, to acquire resources, and to gain discretion " (…) " by creating the appearance of competence ". As they noted, following Thompson (1967), " when …