This paper examines the relationship between Schumpeterian patterns of innovation and the generation of breakthrough inventions. Our data source for breakthrough inventions is the “R&D 100 awards” competition organized each year by the magazine Research & Development. Since 1963, this...

In science, research teams are increasing in size, which suggests that science is becoming more organisational. This paper aims to empirically investigate the effects of the division of labour in management and science on serendipity, which has been considered one of the great factors in...

Exploring the technological development of laser diodes from 1960 to 2000, this study examines how US and Japanese firms diverged from the same technological target to take separate evolutionary paths over time and came to be competitive in the different areas. Scrutinising the level of vertical...

By exploring the patterns of laser-diode technological development in the U.S. and Japan and theoretically examining market conditions and institutions that promote entrepreneurial spin-outs from a parental company, this study reveals how the existence and absence of entrepreneurial spin-out...

It is well known that not all innovations are patented, but the exact volume of innovative activities undertaken outside the coverage of patent protection and, relatedly, the actual propensity to patent an innovation in different contexts remain, to a major degree, a matter of speculation. This...