Grammars of creation. Mapping search strategies for radical innovation

Radical innovation creates discontinuity in the competitive environment and, in some cases, open new industries. The origin of radical innovation is poorly understood, although a large literature deals with its consequences. Some authors stressed the importance of challenging established boundaries of markets, by addressing non-customers and developing products around new functionalities. This paper goes a step beyond by addressing the cognitive foundations of radical innovation. It uses insights from design theory in engineering science, complex problem solving in artificial intelligence, applied ontology in philosophy, ethnographic research, economics of technology and history of technology to build a framework for understanding the nature of radical change. Links with other fields (mainly in social sciences) that have explored the nature of creative processes are developed. First of all, it elaborates on the notion of function space, i.e. the abstract characterization of possible uses of artefacts. It argues that this space is subject to an internal dynamics, that designers, industrial researchers and innovation managers try to identify and map. Secondly, it proposes a simple but general framework for defining heuristic strategies for search into this space. It proposes the categories of local search, recombination, analogy and abstraction as useful way to characterize general search strategies. It discusses each of them in the light of the literature and offers a rich series of mini case-studies to illustrate the underlying logic. The paper uses abstract conceptual categories but offers many practical and managerial insights into the largely under-explored field of radical innovation. 1 School of Engineering, Via Diotisalvi 2, 56126 Pisa, Italy. Tel. +39 05